In 1990, the United States Congress enacted H.R.3961, officially redesignating the building as the "Robert S. Vance Federal Building", in honor of Robert Smith Vance, a United States Court of Appeals judge who had been assassinated the previous year by a mail-bomb sent to his home.

[3] The building is representative of the Classical Revival style of architecture, and because it is a continuing symbol of the Federal presence in Birmingham.

The Post Office has moved out of the building, but the structure continues to maintain a prominent presence in the financial/business district of downtown Birmingham.

Occupying an entire city block of 5th Avenue, between 18th and 19th Streets, the building is a local landmark and the historic symbol of the Federal presence in Birmingham.

[4] The main elevation (south) includes a fourteen bay central colonnade flanked on either side by a projecting entrance pavilion and wing.

In the later 1920s a two-story addition was constructed appearing as a third level, slightly recessed behind a balustrade, and an attic below a hipped roof.

The colonnade supports an unembellished entablature with an unadorned architrave and denticulated cornice, which continues around the south, east and west elevations.

Each entry is approached by a broad flight of granite steps flanked by marble cheek walls with original cast bronze light standards.

The arched main entries are delineated by engaged Ionic columns which support the entablature above the second floor level.

Two bronze and glass entry doors appear at the head of short flights of steps at the northeast and southeast corners.