Teddy Roosevelt’s presidential library, the first to be built with mass timber, is nearing the finish line, with the $450 million project on track to open July 4 — as part of 250-year celebrations expected to be attended by every living president. That is according to a formal announcement by the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, which confirmed that a dedication ceremony will take place before doors open to the public across five days of celebrations.
It is a long way from the scenes Wood Central reported in September, when crews were still battling minus-10-degree concrete pours on a single-access Badlands butte. The 96,000 sq ft building was fully enclosed by mid-November, and the interior fit-out has been advancing rapidly ever since.
Up to 40,000 people are expected in Medora across the five-day program — the largest gathering in the North Dakota Badlands since Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was dedicated in 1949. For a town of 160 permanent residents, policed by three officers, the scale is unlike anything the region has faced before, with state law enforcement called in to help.
Timber remains at the heart of the build, as it should — Roosevelt was instrumental in establishing the U.S. Forest Service — wth Mercer Mass Timber, the United States largest producer of engineered wood products supplying 1,800 cubic metres of cross-laminated timber and glulam in two phases: first, the curved, butte-inspired roof, completed in May 2025, following by the timber canopies that shelter the site’s photovoltaic arrays.
“We have a part steel, part mass timber building, and a lot of those connections can be tricky,” according to Tony Erickson, the library’s director of design and construction, who spoke about the build in September. “JE Dunn did a lot of site visits to the plants and a lot of mock-ups.” And those preparations paid off — not a single connection required rework on a schedule project manager Trevor Leingang described as “immovable.”
The interior is now taking shape to match the ambition of the frame.
Dimensional Innovations has built out the library’s galleries in collaboration with Snøhetta and architect of record JLG Architecture — using AI, holograms, and interactive storytelling to guide visitors through Roosevelt’s military career, conservation presidency, and backcountry explorations. The western wing carries 40,000 sq ft of exhibition and retail space; the eastern wing houses a 300-seat auditorium, academic rooms and administration.
Whilst the building was rising, infrastructure was racing to keep pace. North Dakota co-op Roughrider Electric completed a 12-mile underground cable upgrade late last year to power the plateau, including a bore beneath the Little Missouri River — a project that required U.S. Forest Service permits and easements from private landowners to pull off in time.
Already, National Geographic has named the North Dakota Badlands one of its Best of the World destinations for 2026, with the library opening cited as the centrepiece attraction. Not bad for a job site that, two winters ago, had one road in, one road out, and crews still pouring concrete at minus-10 degrees.
Please note: Wood Central has previously reported on the library’s Phase 1 completion and Mercer Mass Timber’s Nick Milestone — Vice President of Building and Construction — in a special feature interview here.
