$450 Million Theodore Roosevelt Library Rises in Medora as Presidential Campuses Boom
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 16
$450 Million Theodore Roosevelt Library Rises in Medora as Presidential Campuses Boom
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 16
Summary
$450 million has produced a striking new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota — a 93,000-square-foot mass-timber and rammed-earth complex set into the Badlands.
Craig Dykers of Snohetta designed the building to recede into the landscape like “two pebbles under a leaf,” making it barely visible from neighboring Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Medora, population 160, ties the project to Roosevelt’s 1884 retreat after the deaths of his wife and mother, when ranching in the Little Missouri River Valley helped shape his conservation legacy.
The institution functions more as a Roosevelt museum than a traditional library, using exhibits and A.I.-powered installations to present both his achievements and the costs of his policies for Native Americans.
The opening lands amid a broader presidential-library building wave, after Barack Obama’s $850 million Chicago campus opened last month and Donald Trump said he wants one in downtown Miami.