The University of Oregon is now 12 months away from opening its new Oregon Acoustic Research Lab — a purpose‑built facility designed to test sound and impact transmission in mass timber and a critical step toward scaling affordable, multi‑family timber housing across the state.
Located inside Terminal 2 at the Port of Portland, the lab will help certify timber assemblies destined for residential projects, addressing one of the most persistent barriers to wider mass‑timber adoption: acoustic performance and compliance with building codes.
Wood Central understands that the new facility is a cornerstone of the Port’s broader plans to transform the maritime terminal into the Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus — a 159,000 square metre (or 39‑acre) hub for manufacturing, research, workforce training and housing innovation.
Terminal 2, once used to ship wood and steel out of Portland, was earmarked in 2017 for redevelopment into a centre for “new sustainable timber products and technologies and a major increase in Oregon’s housing supply.” And whilst early discussions about a potential acoustic testing facility began in 2018, momentum accelerated after the Labor Day Fires of 2020, when state agencies and regional partners — including the Port of Portland, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and the TallWood Design Institute — sought solutions for processing post‑fire timber and rapidly delivering new housing.
A joint funding application was submitted in 2021, and by September 2022, the Acoustic Lab project was formally awarded. The lab is one of several major investments funded through the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition, which received US$41.4 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to advance Oregon’s mass‑timber sector. Of that, $14.6 million was allocated specifically to the new acoustics lab at Terminal 2.
The campus is also home to one of the country’s most ambitious new manufacturing ventures: a 100,000‑square‑foot mass‑timber modular housing factory operated by Swiss‑based ZAUGG Timber Solutions (ZTS). Approved by the Port in June 2025, the factory is expected to open in 2028, with ZTS planning to begin producing housing units and prefabricated timber components as early as 2026 inside a renovated warehouse on the terminal.
“Our investment plans are a recognition of the incredible work already done to build the mass timber economy of the Pacific Northwest,” according to Stephen Zaugg, chair of the third‑generation company, who spoke of the big move last year.“We hope to be a small part of it by contributing our hard‑won expertise around affordable modular and prefabricated mass timber elements.”
Lab closes a critical gap that has hindered the adoption of mass timber in buildings.
Because residential mass‑timber buildings must meet strict acoustic standards, all products require certified testing for both sound and impact transmission. As Judith Sheine, professor of architecture and director of design at the TallWood Design Institute, told the Daily Emerald overnight: “In order to meet those requirements, you have to be what is known as ASTM certified, which is the American Society for Testing and Materials. You have to have certified tests that say this particular assembly of this type of mass timber at this thickness, with this kind of acoustic mat, meets these code requirements.”
The OARL will therefore operate as a key link in the mass‑timber supply chain — bridging the gap between raw material, manufacturing and project delivery. “(Wood goes from) being logged in a forest to a sawmill or to a peeling plant and then to manufacturers that make either cross-laminated timber or mass plywood. Then those are specified by architects and engineers for particular projects,” Sheine said. “If they want an assembly that has not been tested yet, or they want to try some other thickness they don’t have testing for, that (wood) goes to the new (OARL) facility, and it can be tested and certified or not.”
Housing two highly controlled acoustic chambers — an upper and a lower room separated by a mass‑timber test slab that can be layered with acoustic mats, concrete toppings, or other materials — Wood Central understands that sound will be played in the upper chamber and measured below, allowing researchers to determine transmission loss and impact performance.
At the same time, testing will focus primarily on floor and ceiling assemblies, which Sheine notes are significantly more complex than wall systems. “You have to use a crane to get these very heavy samples into the chambers, incredibly particular requirements for the chambers themselves, so you don’t have what is called flanking noise, which is noise that leaks in that interferes with your tests,” she said.
Once complete, the $25.88 million, 14,000‑square‑foot facility will anchor the research and certification backbone of the Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus — supporting Oregon’s push to deliver affordable, high‑performance timber housing at scale.
