Snøhetta design the most regenerative cultural building in the Americas

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (TRPL), designed by Tenderstream member Snøhetta, opened on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the United States. Located in Medora, North Dakota on a 93 ac site adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the 96,000 sq ft library is expected to welcome more than 200,000 visitors annually. The library is the most regenerative cultural building in the Americas and one of the most ambitious projects pursuing the full Living Building certification, the world’s most rigorous environmental standard.

Serving as design architect, landscape architect, and interior designer, Snøhetta developed an integrated approach that unifies architecture, landscape, and narrative into a single experience. Guided by the principle ‘The Library is the Landscape’, the architecture rises from a butte, its accessible earthen roof spanning 121,000 sq ft of living prairie. An elevated boardwalk threads through the landscape at shifting elevations, with outdoor classrooms, reflective spaces, and a suspended netted overlook above the terrain. TRPL is the first presidential library accessible by hiking trail, mountain bike, horseback, and car.

Inside, passageways move visitors between light and dark, echoing Roosevelt’s own journey. Large windows frame historically significant landscapes, including views toward Roosevelt’s historic Elkhorn Ranch and his legacy of public lands. The material palette is rooted in place: mass timber, reclaimed regional wood, low-carbon concrete, and rammed-earth walls constructed from locally sourced soil.

The library targets the Living Building Challenge’s full Living Certification, guided by a ‘Four Zeros’ framework: zero energy, zero water, zero emissions, and zero waste. Upon certification, TRPL will be the largest and most complex Living Certified cultural institution in the world. Matt McMahon, Snøhetta project director, stated: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are - building in the challenging Badlands locale requires strategy and resourcefulness. The project elevates local materials and relies upon North Dakota know-how to craft a building and landscape made from the Badlands,”.

Lucy Nordberg
Tenderstream Head of Research

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