Studio Gang Shares Design for Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
“Our design, Basecamp, is inspired by T.R.’s dual love of learning and the outdoors. As the first Presidential Library attached to a National Park, the project is poised to foster greater understanding, environmental stewardship, and healing in one of North America’s most incredible natural places. Intimately connected with the ecology of the North Dakota Badlands, Basecamp will at once draw people inward for intellectual exchange and direct them outward for physical exploration, allowing them to discover new connections with each other and the natural world.” — Jeanne Gang
August 17, 2020
Studio Gang is one of three teams shortlisted to compete for the commission of design architect for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The finalist’s designs will be posted for public comment and the selection will be announced this September.
Studio Gang and OLIN’s design for the Library is conceived as a basecamp embedded in the North Dakota Badlands—a transformative gathering place where immersion in T.R.’s story and the surrounding environment brings people together to find common ground and inspires and equips them to launch back into the world with renewed passion and purpose.
Like one of the Badlands’ fantastic rock formations, the building emerges from the land as if carved away by water and wind. The building is composed of three, horseshoe-shaped elements that organize the different functions of the Library. Each horseshoe houses the distinct activities on the inside while simultaneously embracing the dramatic outdoor environment, creating protected gardens and terraces that offer varied views of the landscape, showcase native plant communities, and provide habitat for wildlife. The spaces between the volumes act like the cracks in the Badlands’ clay-rich soil, allowing light and air to enter the interior. At the building’s heart, the three horseshoes tilt upward to form a grand, dome-like central space from which all of the activities of the Library can be seen and explored.
Importantly, the design treats architecture and landscape as symbiotic and intimately connected with the site’s greater ecology. Informed by nature’s means of resilience in the harsh conditions of the Badlands, the project’s passive and active green strategies work together to achieve a net-zero, carbon-neutral Library with a healthy, inspiring environment full of natural light and fresh air. In addition, the design integrates an ecological restoration and management plan for the entire site that will heal and renew the surrounding ecosystems over time, making the Library a living model for how people, wildlife, and agriculture can coexist and thrive.
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Studio Gang Shortlisted for Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation named Studio Gang one of three finalists to compete for the commission of design architect of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
