What the Press Is Saying
Since the doors opened on July 4, 2026, critics, travel editors and reporters from across the country have made the trip to Medora to see the Library for themselves. Here is some of what they wrote. Read the full coverage in the News Clips archive.
“You’d be hard-pressed not to like the new $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. It’s an easy charmer and a spectacular work of ecologically minded architecture in the drop-dead gorgeous North Dakota Badlands.”
“…a moving work of architecture that harmonizes with its North Dakota landscape setting.”
“America’s Newest Cultural Institution Is Built Into the Badlands—And It’s Completely Stunning”
“…a presidential library that blazes a trail of its own—one we should hope others will follow.”
“The library itself is a stunning building, designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta to emerge from the landscape and blur into the terrain.”
“Everywhere we looked during our privileged sneak-peek back in March, it was hard to tell where nature ended and the library began.”
“It’s a dazzling, eco-friendly space that centers interactivity and storytelling over static exhibits and archives.”
“America’s Newest Landmark Was Designed to Disappear”
“…the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library celebrates the Badlands as much as it does the 26th president.”
“The library is part museum, part archive, part park.”
“It’s a big complex built into an even bigger western landscape that makes the building look small.”
“…the library serves as a model for environmental stewardship—built on top of a butte on the edge of town and blending into the Badlands landscape with rammed earth and prairie roofs.”
“…far from any city and surrounded by rugged hills beneath a vast sky.”
“…the entirely sustainable building features an earthen roof sloped into a hill that visitors can ascend to view the surrounding Badlands.”
“With its low-slung profile and grassy roof, the building appears as but a murmur on the prairie.”
“…the structure feels less like architecture imposed on the land and more like something the Badlands quietly exhaled.”
“…a winding and interactive high-tech journey through the extraordinary life of America’s 26th president. The building fits seamlessly into the prairie landscape that lured Roosevelt West.”
“…part museum, part storytelling engine and part conservation campus…”
“Architecture studio Snøhetta has laid a hill-like green roof over timber-and-earth volumes for a building dedicated to American president Theodore Roosevelt, connecting it to the rolling landscape of North Dakota.”
“In North Dakota, a Regenerative Presidential Library for Theodore Roosevelt”