Exclusive | New York lost out: The new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota is a celebration of a man who made America great

MEDORA, ND — All presidents loved America, but no president loved its actual soil, forests and mountains quite like Teddy Roosevelt.So its fitting the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is anchored into North Dakota’s Badlands like an extension of the earth itself, its low, terrain-toned form and sweeping glass walls blending seamlessly into the dramatic, rainbow-tinted landscape.Designed by the world-renowned Norwegian firm Snøhetta, it’s also the only presidential library where visitors can arrive by horseback.“The reason the library is here is not because of Roosevelt’s ego.In fact, he never wanted a monument devoted to him,” Charlie Melcher, creative director of the library, told The Post.“This land is so powerful. The Badlands are so unique, so intense, they’re like nature concentrated. But it somehow makes you feel that wonderful sense of being small — just a small particle in an infinite universe.

And somehow, oddly, that’s incredibly comforting.” That’s a far cry from other presidential building projects in the news recently — from President Obama’s widely-derided Presidential Center rising like a feudal tower from the middle of Chicago’s historic Jackson Park to President Trump’s hulking White House ballroom and proposed skyscraper in downtown Miami to serve as his library.“Teddy Roosevelt was a naturalist.He came here to repair a broken heart.

Throughout his life, the outdoors was the way that he got healthy,” Matt Briney, comms director for the library, told The Post on a recent exclusive tour of the site.“He is also an impossible person to live up to, an epic life.One chapter of his story is more incredible than the last.

And I think the point that we’re trying to make here is that you don’t have to be president of the United States to make a difference.You just need to stand up and fight for change.”North Dakota, it turns out, would not only be a refuge for the future president but also his...