“We’re not just preserving history here; we’re building history for someone else to preserve,” General Superintendent Steve Fore said.

The library is set to open July Fourth, 2026, coinciding with the United States’ 250th birthday. The building will feature immersive storytelling, new technologies, and a first-of-its-kind digital library. Sitting on 92 acres, this 96,000-square-foot building showcases architectural design from Norwegian firm Snøhetta, allowing it to complement and nestle into the unique, remote landscape of southwestern North Dakota.

“The remote site has brought some challenges … we’ve done a good job of adapting by partnering with as many local groups that are familiar with the area,” Project Manager 1 Trever Leingang said.

From working with local utilities to provide power and water, to expanding and creating access roads, to pre-planning material delivery, the team’s adaptability to remote construction conditions has allowed them to thrive under unique circumstances.

Much of Roosevelt’s lasting impact on the nation comes from his deep dedication to conservation through efforts such as establishing the United States Forest Service and laying the groundwork for the National Park Service. In the spirit of his conservation, the TRPL is designed with sustainability in mind — including net-zero goals for electricity, water, waste, and emissions — along with site-wide initiatives to encourage growth and protection of the area’s native flora and fauna.

“The landscape is part of the design,” Leingang said. “Contouring this building into the landscape helps us reach those sustainability goals.”

A centerpiece of the project’s design is its earthen roof that gradually slopes out of the butte, where visitors will be able to walk atop it to get a better view of the surrounding landscape.

“The green roof has 130,000 native plants that have been hand-grown from seeds picked here,” Fore said. “There are 51 different species right now on the roof alone.”

Alongside the green roof, the site will feature a roughly mile-long boardwalk that gives visitors an in-depth view of the local grasslands, teeming with upwards of 400,000 native plants sourced and planted in partnership with Resource Environmental Solutions and North Dakota State University.

The library’s mass timber construction plays a large part in maintaining its sustainability goals. Known for its renewability and carbon-storing properties, mass timber aligns itself with Roosevelt’s legacy of conservation.

“Mass timber allows the building to feel warm, natural, and connected to the surrounding landscape,” Leingang said. “It’s an embodiment of Roosevelt’s belief in preserving and wisely using natural resources.”

Utilizing rammed-earth walls and a mass timber rain screen along its facade, the library pulls design elements directly from the surrounding environment, allowing it to blend back into the natural landscape — adding to it rather than taking away. The rain screen in particular has been a large opportunity for self-perform work. The screen panels are prefabricated in the JE Dunn PreBuild facility in Kansas City, designed and built with sustainability and efficient installation in mind.

“PreBuild is playing a large role in our self-perform scope on the project,” Leingang said. “The panel system greatly benefits the installation process — they will be constantly sending us material over the next nine months.”

Cross-company collaboration is another reason for the project’s success as it nears completion. Featuring a team of 90% traveler employees from around the Midwest region, the TRPL project team has worked diligently to create a high-achieving environment of dedication and pride.

“It’s common to go the extra mile up here,” Leingang said. “Our team understands the importance and significance of the project. It goes a long way.”

For the team, it’s not only an important job for the nation, but an opportunity for them to be a part of something larger than themselves.

“I’ve got eight grandkids,” Fore said. “I’m pretty proud of working on a project like this —  something they can see for the rest of their, and hopefully into their kids’ lives.”

“It’s an extremely unique, once-in-a-lifetime job for somebody like me,” Leingang said. “JE Dunn has a lot of different capabilities, but doing something like this has shown me how far we can go.”

The post Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library first appeared on JE Dunn Construction.

JE Dunn recently worked to implement a complex prefabrication integration for the Starlight Theatre project, a renowned Kansas City landmark. Starlight Theatre recently launched their Uniquely KC campaign to raise money for their new renovation and addition project. The campaign’s mission is to connect the community through live arts experiences that entertain, inspire, and engage.

The first phase of this renovation involved constructing two nearly 70-foot-tall masonry towers that flank each side of the stagehouse, designed to replicate the exiting towers built in the 1950s. Each tower is topped with a patinated copper roof that matches the existing roof spires on the historic towers. In collaboration with Zahner, JE Dunn designed and engineered two symmetrical halves for each roof structure. The structures were clad with copper at Zahner’s offsite facility before being shipped to the jobsite, where they were assembled, hoisted into placed, and capped with a decorative spire.

When considering whether to implement prefabrication, JE Dunn evaluates the pros and cons of the project at hand. For Starlight Theatre, the goal was to match the existing copper roofs, which passed a significant challenge given the 75 years of patina, wear, and character on the original copper. Fortunately, the design team had not yet selected a product, allowing for discussions around implementing prefabrication efforts. Knowing that Zahner has nearly 75 years of experience in manufacturing patinaed copper, the company was a perfect partner for this project.

Overcoming Challenges

The Starlight Theatre project had specific challenges to overcome, including a limited schedule, tight job-site, and difficult buy out. Being primarily an outdoor space, Starlight Theatre runs on a seasonal basis – giving the team a limited schedule for construction. Furthermore, the logistics of the site are extremely tight. The laydown area is limited for materials around the stagehouse and most of the expanse is sloped. Building the roof structures onsite was near impossible in the timeframe.

By moving fabrication offsite, the team minimized downtime for critical path masonry activities and reduced the amount of time scaffolding needed for framing in place. In addition to the difficult site logistics of building these in place, the patinaed copper roofing was a scope that was difficult to buy out, as most roofing trades lacked the necessary expertise or were hesitant to take on the risk for such a pricy material. Prefabricating the roofs in the manner JE Dunn implemented helped overcome these buyout hurdles.

The post Maximizing Efficiency Through Unique Prefabrication Efforts first appeared on JE Dunn Construction.

Austin Convention Center Redevelopment

Videos

Partners

Gallery

The post Austin Convention Center Redevelopment first appeared on JE Dunn Construction.

From the outside, the building changes appearance with the time and the season, its glass blocks reflecting sun and sky in day and radiating interior lighting at night. The building serves to fuse art, architecture, and landscape. The expansion is highlighted by five glass “lenses,” structures that serve as light catchers for the below-grade galleries.

As part of the project, JE Dunn also renovated 234,000 square feet of existing museum space and constructed a 450-space underground garage.

The post Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building Addition & Museum Renovations first appeared on JE Dunn Construction.

The post Minnesota Children’s Museum Renovation first appeared on JE Dunn Construction.