Build It Forward

Most kids never get the chance to hold a tool before someone tells them it's not for them. Mason Lord is trying to change that.

Mason is the founder of TradesUp and owner of Hudson Valley Preservation, a design-build company in Kent, Connecticut with 35 years of preservation and high-performance remodeling work behind it. His path into the trades started at age seven, in a neighbor's basement workshop, after losing his father in first grade. That early spark is the entire philosophy behind what he's building next with TradesUp.

The conversation moves through how a small idea, inviting local kids to a job site for a day, became an annual event drawing 500 people, where tradespeople set up hands-on experiences for kids ages 5 to 12. Why that age range matters. Why middle schoolers hesitate and little kids jump right in. Why the tradespeople keep showing up, year after year, without being asked twice. And what Mason sees as the real opportunity: not just recruiting for the trades, but putting kids at the top of a funnel so that even the ones who don't become carpenters grow up knowing how to walk into a lumberyard without flinching.

This conversation on Build It Forward, recorded at NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026, also gets into the trades training center Mason is developing on the campus of the Eric Sloan Museum in Kent, the idea of building as something close to human instinct, and why the desire to work with your hands hasn't gone away just because shop class has.

00:44 Hudson Valley Preservation and how NESEA changed things
02:31 Starting a workforce development initiative
03:24 The Spark event -- 500 people, ages 5 to 12
05:09 Where Mason's spark started
05:43 TradesUp as the top of the funnel
06:42 Workshops, community events, and what's next
07:06 Building a trades training center at the Eric Sloan Museum
08:30 The desire to build hasn't gone away
15:11 What builders remember first
16:01 Planning for Play and the case for raw materials
17:57 What shop class took with it -- and what it didn't

Connect with Mason Lord:
IG: @masontheelder

Learn more about Hudson Valley Preservation:
hvpcorp.com | IG: @hudsonvalleypreservation

Get involved with TradesUp:
tradesup.org | IG: @tradesuporg

Learn more about NESEA:
nesea.org | IG: @neseaorg

Work with Auburndale Builders on your high-performance build:
vision@auburndalebuilders.com

Music:
Welcome to the Johnsons from the album Bird Mode by E*Lightning aka Jon Erickson, CPHB
elightning.bandcamp.com

Made with @PRMEABL

#BuildItForward #AuburndaleBuilders #PassiveHouse #HighPerformanceBuilding #BuildingScience #GreenBuilding #NetZero #WorkforceDevelopment #Trades #TradesUp #HudsonValleyPreservation #NESEA

What is Build It Forward?

Build It Forward is about the people, ideas, and decisions shaping the future of high-performance residential construction. Hosted by Nick Falkoff, GM of Auburndale Builders, and produced by PRMEABL_, the name is a play on “pay it forward.”

Conversations range from technical decisions and process to people, culture, history, and collaboration — exploring what’s working, what isn’t, and what might be interesting to try next.

These conversations are worth having, and worth sharing, because the best buildings come from communities that share what they know and build forward together.