Its Beaux-Arts/American Renaissance design was influenced by the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and by McKim, Mead & White's Rhode Island State House.

The building is set in a landscaped campus with the Capitol Mall on its south front, Leif Erikson Park on its west, and Judicial Plaza to its east.

The main entrance on the southwest from Wabasha Street opened onto the first floor, where the governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, and secretary of state had offices.

The Assembly (House of Representatives) chamber in the southeast wing featured a twenty-five-foot ceiling with a large stained glass skylight.

This included supervising the expenditures, acquiring property, setting building specifications, selecting the architect and general contractor, and giving final approval for the type of stone to use on the exterior, as well as the art and artists.

[21] Gilbert wrote a note in the margins on a 1912 article on his work stating that his plan of the Minnesota capitol had been greatly influenced by the one in Rhode Island.

[22] The building's structure consists of a steel and cast iron frame on rough limestone foundation walls resting on concrete footings.

The structural elements of a building primarily consist of load-bearing brick and stone masonry walls and piers supporting steel-framed floor and roof systems.

Hidden inside is a brick and steel cone that supports the lantern and golden sphere at the top of the dome and provides an internal water drainage system, which helps avoid the heaving problem created by the freezing and thawing of Minnesota winters.

[25] Because it was just over 30 years after the American Civil War when the building was designed, Gilbert drew ire for choosing marble from Georgia rather than native Minnesota granite for the exterior.

A compromise was made with native granite for the steps and the base and interior walls of Kasota limestone, while using the Georgia white marble for the vast majority of the buildings' exterior.

Dividing the statuary niches and the Kasota stone walls in the rotunda from the "Civilization of the Northwest" murals above them is a line of Sioux Quartzite from a quarry in Jasper, Minnesota.

[29] Gilbert sought out many of the finest artists of the period, such as Kenyon Cox, Elmer Garnsey, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Henry Oliver Walker, Edward Emerson Simmons, John La Farge, Douglas Volk, Francis D. Millet, Howard Pyle, and Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum.

[31][32][33] In particular, the inspiration for the Minnesota quadriga, a group of figures entitled Progress of the State, was the Columbus Quadriga, a statue depicting Christopher Columbus standing in a four horse chariot guided by two maidens carrying staffs of victory, that Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter had modeled for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

In 1971, the Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board and the Minnesota Historical Society were entrusted to approve design, structural composition and location of all works of art.

Gilbert designed the elaborately decorated room, which was inspired by his earlier vacation in Europe, on the lines of a Venetian Council Chamber, with stained white oak woodwork and heavy molding gilded with gold leaf framing historical paintings.

"The executive rooms should be finished in perfectly plain color without elaborate decoration of any kind," Gilbert wrote in a 1903 letter to the Board.

Gilbert prepared plans for a more ornate room to accommodate paintings of historical subject matter, which were originally considered for the lunettes over the grand stair halls.

[39][40] In 1968 the red drapes and leather furnishings were replaced with gold velvet curtains and modern armchairs covered in mustard yellow upholstery.

Gilbert had many of the Corinthian capitals adjusted to feature larger-than-life renditions of the wild orchid found in Minnesota's northern forests.

These issues convinced Gilbert to amend his vision and include Civil War homages inside the Capitol building.

Years after the construction was done, more plaques and benches memorializing Minnesotans who served in the Civil War were added between the 1920s and 1930s as the result of lobbying done by veterans groups and legislators.

Work to transform the area and to develop at least partially Gilbert's vision of landscaped grand boulevards providing key approaches to the capitol began after World War II.

[51] Work began in 2013, with the project estimated at that time to cost $241 million, funded via a series of appropriations made by the Minnesota legislature.

The laser scanning done to confirm the accuracy of the digital model also showed that Gilbert's original architectural drawings proved to be very accurate to what was built.

[54] The original Georgia marble stone on the exterior had badly deteriorated from weathering, and underwent comprehensive restoration that included 20,000 repairs with 6,000 pieces replaced.

[53] Some historic details removed during previous renovations, were restored or recreated such as the Capitol's public elevators on the south side of the building which were outfitted with leaded-glass fronts reminiscent of the originals which had been discarded and replaced by stainless steel doors in the late 1960s.

[53][54] The project also included a restoration of the capitol's many works of fine art, which prompted discussions over some paintings in the building that feature controversial depictions of American Indians.

A series of public input meetings were held around the state to gather feedback and consider options for new policies regarding art in the renovated building.

[55] When the building reopened, two of these paintings, Father Hennepin Discovering the Falls of St. Anthony, and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux were relocated while others remained in place.