Theodore Roosevelt established the US Forest Service in 1905. More than a century on, the library bearing his name is just 15 days from opening as America’s first raised in cross-laminated timber, with the tiny Badlands town hosting it braced for 40,000 visitors, every living US president on the guest list and 50 National Guard troops. The $450 million library opens on 4 July at the end of the only road into Medora, designed by Norway’s Snøhetta with North Dakota firm JLG Architects as architect of record.
The thirteen libraries from Hoover to George W. Bush run through modernist slabs, neoclassical halls, and glass rotundas, none of them built from engineered timber. Rather than stand above the landscape, the Roosevelt building hangs over a giant Badlands rock near the Burning Hills Amphitheatre, on the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Michelle Mongeon Allen, who leads JLG, grew up in rural North Dakota and has called the commission the most personal of her career. “The landscape and community shaped my values and vision as an architect,” Allen said.
Mercer Mass Timber supplied the structure, the largest mass timber project North Dakota has seen. Exposed glulam columns and a cross-laminated timber ceiling carry Snøhetta’s curved roof above the main exhibition hall, with builder JE Dunn wrapping the steel connections in wood to hold a seamless timber look.
That roof first rose over the Badlands last year, when Mercer finished the museum building and its sweeping curves after a winter that drove crews into sub-zero concrete pours. Mercer credits its timber system with faster installation and up to 40 per cent less embodied carbon than conventional construction.
Exhibit admission for 4 July has already sold out, with the foundation opening bookings through to 31 December and keeping the dedication free to the public. The evening carries a 1,776-drone show keyed to the nation’s founding year, a first for a presidential library opening.
Every living US president has been invited to the dedication, though none has publicly confirmed, and library director Robbie Lauf has reported only positive inclinations towards a visit from President Donald Trump. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, a foundation board member, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are among those expected on the day.
State authorities have folded an unusual security operation into the town, with the North Dakota Emergency Commission approving $283,000 to activate 50 National Guard troops from 29 June to 6 July. The 25 military police and 25 general-purpose soldiers, backed by 20 tactical vehicles and stand-by helicopter teams, will support local and state law enforcement across the holiday weekend.
Jennifer Burke Jackson, a principal and community practice studio leader at JLG, said the firm’s long history in the region shaped its approach to the rugged site and its complex soils. “Our architects have worked on projects in this remote and rugged region for decades,” Jackson said.
The library is pursuing Living Building Challenge certification, among the most demanding sustainability standards in use, alongside LEED Platinum and SITES Platinum targets. Success would make it the first certified Living Building in North Dakota and the first US presidential library designed to meet the standard.
Sustainability manager Chayna Claeys said the building is designed to produce more energy than it consumes once its performance period begins. “TRPL will be a living building and brilliant example of energy independence,” Claeys said.
To echo the layered geology of the Badlands, crews raised rammed-earth walls nearly eight metres high from compacted local soil, banded so they read like the region’s rock formations. Overhead, the walkable prairie roof carries about 140,000 native grass plugs across some 60 species, grown from seed by a North Dakota State University team studying how the planting holds.
