 The new post office and courthouse was designed by Baumann and Baumann, a prominent local firm that had recently designed the Andrew Johnson Hotel on Gay Street.The firm's two chief partners were Albert Baumann, Sr. (1861–1942) and his son, Albert Baumann, Jr. (1897–1952).Albert Baumann, Jr., had studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania under Beaux-Arts champion Paul Cret, and the design of the Knoxville post office was likely conceived from a Treasury Department model inspired by Cret.