Mason's Mill, Thermory® & CUTEK® Inside the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
Project Spotlight
On July 4, 2026 — America’s 250th birthday — the doors of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened to the public for the first time on a butte overlooking the Little Missouri River in Medora, North Dakota. It was a moment more than six years and hundreds of “no’s” in the making: a 96,000-square-foot library and museum built into the Badlands landscape that shaped Roosevelt into the conservationist, leader, and citizen the nation would come to know (JLG Architects; Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library).
We’re proud that a piece of Houston craftsmanship traveled all the way to the North Dakota Badlands for this one. Mason’s Mill & Lumber prefinished the Thermory® Benchmark Pine used throughout the project — every board finished in-house with CUTEK® Extreme in a Smokey Gray Colortone before it ever left our Houston facility. This post is our look at that grand opening, the material story behind it, and the two partners — Thermory and CUTEK — who made it possible.
A Library Worthy of a President
The design team behind the Library reads like a roll call of world-class architecture. Snøhetta, the Norway- and New York-based firm behind projects like the National September 11 Museum Pavilion and the Oslo Opera House, served as design architect, with JLG Architects — a North Dakota–founded, employee-owned firm — as architect of record, and JE Dunn Construction as construction manager delivering the project under a construction-manager-at-risk model (JE Dunn Construction; ArchDaily).
Set on a 93-acre site adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the Library was built to be more than a museum. Its design pursues what the team calls a “Four Zeros” framework — targeting zero energy, zero carbon, zero water, and zero waste — with rammed-earth walls raised from local soil, sand, and gravel, and a 121,000-square-foot walkable living roof that blurs the line between building and prairie (Archinect; JLG Architects). If the certifications land as planned — Living Building Challenge Full, LEED Platinum, and SITES Platinum — it will stand as the world’s only carbon-neutral presidential library (Archinect).
Opening day itself carried its own symbolism. The Grand Opening Ceremony began at 10:27 a.m. Mountain Time on July 4, 2026 — a nod to America’s 250th birthdate — with remarks from North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong, U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, Library CEO Ed O’Keefe, and Theodore Roosevelt V on behalf of the Roosevelt family, ahead of a Roosevelt family tradition: branding a piece of wood cut from a copper beech tree Theodore Roosevelt himself planted at Sagamore Hill in the 1890s (JLG Architects; The Dickinson Press). That same salvaged Sagamore Hill wood was later worked by Grain Designs into the Library’s conference tables, podiums, and signage — a fitting thread of real, storied wood running through the entire project (JLG Architects).
Where Mason’s Mill Comes In
Mason’s Mill & Lumber has been a Thermory® distribution partner since 2016 and today operates the Thermory USA Central Warehouse out of our Houston facility — the largest Thermory inventory in the country (Mason’s Mill & Lumber; Thermory USA). Alongside stocking and shipping product nationwide, our in-house division handles custom milling and mill applied prefinishing — the same capability that let us take on a project as far from Houston, and as high-profile, as a presidential library.
For the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, Thermory provided the Benchmark Pine used across the project. Our team prefinished every board in CUTEK® Extreme’s Smokey Gray Colortone before it shipped north — meaning the wood arrived on-site in the Badlands ready to install, with its protective, weather-ready finish already locked in.
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The Wood: Thermory® Benchmark Pine
Thermory’s Benchmark Pine is thermally modified — heated to roughly 419°F in a computer-controlled kiln using only heat and steam, with zero chemicals added (Thermory USA). That process changes the wood at a cellular level, driving out the moisture and natural sugars that invite rot and insects, and leaving a Durability Class 2 product rated for 15 to 20+ years of decay resistance (Thermory). The result is a board with the uniform, knot-forward character and warm, golden-brown heartwood look prized in architectural cladding — without a drop of chemical treatment.
For a site as exposed as the North Dakota Badlands — brutal winters, high winds, and long stretches of summer sun — that combination of chemical-free durability and dimensional stability makes Benchmark Pine a natural fit. It’s a big part of why Thermory has become a go-to choice for architects looking to outperform tropical hardwoods without the environmental cost (Thermory USA).
The Finish: CUTEK® Extreme in Smokey Gray
Left unfinished, thermally modified wood will naturally weather to a silver-gray patina over time — a look plenty of architects love. For the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, the design called for that gray tone from day one, which is where CUTEK® Extreme came in.
CUTEK® Extreme is a high-performance, oil-based wood stabilizer originally developed in Australia for some of the harshest climates on earth (CUTEK). Rather than sitting on the surface like a sealer, it diffuses deep into the wood, controlling moisture at both the liquid and vapor level to minimize warping, cupping, and splitting — and it comes with a self-healing quality that means it won’t flake or peel with age (CUTEK). Mixed with one of CUTEK’s Colortones — in this case, Smokey Gray — it locks in a weathered, driftwood-like tone immediately, rather than making the building wait years for nature to deliver it (CUTEK Colortones).
That Smokey Gray finish does double duty at the Library: it protects the pine through Badlands winters and summers alike, and it ties the wood visually to the project’s rammed-earth walls and prairie roofline — muted, natural, and built to age gracefully rather than fight the landscape around it.
Built By Partnership
No single supplier builds a project like this alone, and we don’t pretend otherwise. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library came together through the work of Snøhetta as design architect, JLG Architects as architect of record, Confluence as landscape architect of record, and JE Dunn Construction as construction manager — alongside specialty partners across exhibits, fabrication, and materials (JLG Architects). Mason’s Mill’s part was a focused one: getting the Thermory Benchmark Pine finished in CUTEK Smokey Gray, and shipped ready for installation. It’s the same role we play on projects across Houston, just with a longer drive and a much bigger piece of American history at the other end of it.
Frequently Asked Project Questions
Thermory® Benchmark Pine — a thermally modified softwood produced using only heat and steam, with no chemical treatment — was supplied by Thermory and prefinished by Mason's Mill & Lumber for the project.
Mason's Mill prefinished the Benchmark Pine in CUTEK® Extreme with a Smokey Gray Colortone, a penetrating oil finish that protects the wood while giving it an immediate weathered-gray appearance.
Thermal modification improves rot resistance and dimensional stability without chemicals, making it well suited to the extreme temperature swings, wind, and sun exposure of the North Dakota Badlands.
Snøhetta served as design architect, JLG Architects as architect of record, Confluence as landscape architect of record, and JE Dunn Construction as construction manager. The Library opened to the public on July 4, 2026 (ArchDaily).
Yes. We're based in Houston at 9885 Tanner Rd and regularly ship material across Texas and into neighboring states. Whether you're building on the coast, in the Hill Country, in DFW, or anywhere in between, we can deliver a full material package on your schedule. Give us a call at (713) 462-6975 or get in touch through our site.