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America's newest landmark was designed to disappear

Newsweek · Jul 15, 2026 12:21 · 4 min read

An exterior (left) and interior image (right) of the Theodore Roosevelt Public Library.

The library marks "a shift in how we think about cultural and civic buildings," the architect behind the project told Newsweek.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (TRPL), billed as one of the most ambitious cultural sustainability projects ever undertaken in the United States, has been unveiled in Medora, North Dakota.

Set on a butte overlooking Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the 95,000-square-foot library spans 93 acres in the Badlands and was designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta.

Its opening on July 4 comes as the project team pursues full Living Building Challenge certification, one of the world’s most demanding environmental standards.

Described by the design firm as the “most regenerative cultural building in the Americas,” if certified, it would be “the only Living Certified presidential library—and the largest and most complex Living Certified cultural institution in the world,” according to the team behind the project.

The library sits adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the only U.S. national park named after a person. According to the library, the surrounding landscape will continue to be grazed, reflecting Roosevelt’s own experiences as a rancher and connecting visitors with North Dakota’s ranching heritage. Roosevelt developed a lifelong connection to North Dakota after moving to the Badlands following the deaths of his wife and mother in 1884. He spent much of the next two years ranching in the state and returned frequently until his death in 1919.

An exterior (left) and interior image (right) of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

America’s Newest Landmark Was Designed to Disappear

Creating ‘One Connected System’

Architect Aaron Dorf, director and sustainability and building design lead at Snøhetta, told Newsweek: “Designing a building to pursue the full Living Building Challenge certification, one of the world’s most rigorous environmental standards, required rethinking the traditional relationship between a building and its environment.”

He said the firm’s biggest challenge was creating “a cultural institution of presidential scale” that could operate in harmony with the remote and environmentally sensitive Badlands landscape.

Dorf explained that the project had to satisfy demanding goals related to energy, water, materials, waste and ecological restoration while simultaneously meeting the requirements of a modern presidential library, including archival facilities, galleries, and gathering spaces. As a result, architecture, engineering, landscape design and storytelling were developed as parts of what he described as “one connected system.”

The project team also relied heavily on regional materials. Dorf said locally sourced soil was used for rammed-earth walls, alongside reclaimed regional wood, mass timber, and low-carbon concrete. Materials were selected to avoid harmful chemicals while helping the building respond to the conditions of its setting. “The project transforms the challenges of the site into opportunities for creating a regenerative place,” Dorf said.

An overview of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library set in the Badlands region of North Dakota.

‘The Library Is the Landscape’

Roosevelt’s conservation philosophy became central to the project’s design.

“Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy shaped every aspect of the library’s design,” Dorf said. “His belief that conservation was not simply about protecting land, but about understanding humanity’s responsibility to the natural world, became the foundation for the project’s guiding principle: ‘The library is the landscape.'”

Rather than positioning a building within the landscape, the architects sought to make the landscape itself the primary architectural feature. The structure emerges from the terrain and is topped by an accessible living roof covered with native prairie vegetation.

The roof contains 121,000 square feet of living prairie, according to Snøhetta. The site also features an accessible boardwalk that stretches nearly a mile and guides visitors through the restored landscape. The firm says the TRPL is “the first presidential library accessible by hiking trail, mountain bike, horseback, and car.”

Dorf said the “living landscape” best embodies the project’s vision, combining architecture, ecology, and human experience into a single system. More than 200 native plant species have been cultivated across the roof and surrounding restoration areas. Ongoing management practices, including grazing, haying, and controlled burns, are intended to ensure the landscape continues to evolve over time.

A walkway at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which is said to be “the first presidential library accessible by hiking trail, mountain bike, horseback, and car,” according to the design firm behind the project.

A Shift in Approach to Civic Architecture

“The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library represents a shift in how we think about cultural and civic buildings not simply as objects placed on a site, but as active participants within their environments,” Dorf said.

He added that the building is designed to restore habitat, work with natural systems, and strengthen visitors’ connection to place, while demonstrating that sustainability can be fundamental to a civic institution’s mission rather than an added feature.

“The library is designed as a living system: one that restores native habitat, works with natural processes, uses resources responsibly, and creates a deeper connection between people and place,” Dorf told Newsweek. “We hope it encourages future museums, libraries, and civic buildings to see sustainability not as an additional layer of design, but as a fundamental part of their purpose.”