Local Norfolk architects, Benjamin F. Mitchell and the firm of Rudolph, Cooke, and VanLeeuwen, were jointly responsible for the architectural design.

Upon its completion, this four-story, gray limestone building was considered at the time to fall "little short of magnificence", according to the local paper, the Virginian-Pilot.

[3] During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the city of Norfolk experienced an explosion of prosperity, in part due to the rapid growth of the Naval Base.

In 1915, a committee was appointed and headed by Norfolk's Mayor Wyndham R. Mayo to petition Congress for an appropriation of funds for the construction of a new Federal building in the city.

Menalcus Lankford, Congressman elect from Norfolk, and Postmaster Major Wright, successfully realized $2.05 million in appropriations for the federal building.

The site consisted of approximately 81,000 square feet, part of which had been occupied by St. Luke's Episcopal Church, destroyed by fire ten years earlier.

[3] On April 9, 1931, the Virginian-Pilot announced that a team formed by local architect Benjamin F. Mitchell in association with the firm of Rudolph, Cooke and VanLeeuwen was selected to design the new building.

[3] Among the architects assigned to the team was Mary Brown Channel, who joined the firm after her graduation from Cornell University in 1933; in 1935 she would become the first woman licensed to practice architecture in the commonwealth of Virginia.

Postmaster General James A. Farley and Virginia Senator Harry Byrd were among the special guests who spoke at the ceremony.

A Virginian-Pilot article from September 22, 1934 noted that the building was "fashioned in conservative modernistic design and giving the impression of unlimited stability and bulk."

Compared to the earlier Beaux Arts style, the designs were restrained in ornament, expressing a new attitude that was fresh, clean-lined and modern in the simplicity of the forms and materials.

Limestone is the primary exterior material, with a contrasting dark granite base and decorated aluminum spandrels between aluminum-framed windows.

Although the buildings designed and constructed under the WPA/PWA programs present similar stylistic devices and some of the same materials, the economic situation forced a more restrained approach, eventually resulting in a distinct style - the Art Moderne.

[3] The Walter E. Hoffman Courthouse stands as a significant Federal building, contributing to the architectural and historic character of Norfolk.

[3] The Walter E. Hoffman U.S. District Courthouse is a trapezoidal-shaped building located on an irregular-shaped lot covering a two-city block area.

[3] The stepped-back, simplified ziggurat massing of the building establishes a long east–west horizontal axis with smaller, vertical axes at the main and secondary entrances.

The form and massing combined with two types of carved ornament also serve to distinguish the separate services of post office and courthouse.

[3] All of the exterior elevations of the building are clad in light gray limestone wall panels set above a substantial base of polished black granite, approximately seven feet in height.

All of the entrances feature simple aluminum-framed plate glass doors with brass hardware in a distinctive Art Deco design.

The area was infilled using replicated materials, features, and design motifs from adjoining facades: carved stone banding, aluminum double-hung windows, and polished black granite base.

The first floor L-shaped Main Lobby features full-height marble wall panels in a "crotch mahogany" or butterfly pattern.