By Mason, Founder of HVP
Hudson Valley Preservation’s path toward better building was reinforced in an unexpected place, not on a jobsite, but sitting in a lecture hall.
In 2018, Tedd Benson spoke at the Timber Framers Guild conference that I attended. Tedd is a timber framer, builder, and educator, and the founder of Bensonwood. For decades, his work has focused on advancing high performance residential construction by combining traditional craft with factory based design, engineering, and fabrication.
Bensonwood is a design and build company specializing in energy efficient and sustainable homes. Based in New Hampshire, the company uses a manufacturing driven approach to resolve complex building systems early, allowing projects to be executed with a high level of precision in the field. Bensonwood works on both fully custom homes and standardized models, with a focus on durability, energy performance, and long term building quality.
During that talk, Tedd described how LEAN thinking could be applied to building. At its core, LEAN is about reducing waste, improving flow, and making critical decisions earlier so problems are solved upstream rather than on the jobsite. That way of thinking stayed with me, not because it was entirely new, but because it clarified and strengthened how we already approached our work at HVP.
Later that year, in November of 2018, I bought a piece of land with the intention of building my own home. I knew what I wanted to avoid. Endless design decisions. Uncertainty during construction. Risk concentrated in the wrong places. In residential building, the highest risk is in the shell, especially the frame and water management. Those are the hardest problems to fix once construction is underway.
I decided to build a Unity Zum. Unity is a brand of Bensonwood that focuses on standardized, high performance homes. The Unity system allowed the most critical decisions to be made early and executed in a controlled factory environment, reducing uncertainty in the field.
Because I had committed to building a Unity Zum, I visited Bensonwood in December of 2019 to better understand how the system was designed, engineered, and produced. Seeing the operation in person made it clear how tightly coordinated the process was between design, engineering, and manufacturing. The work was precise, repeatable, and clearly informed by years of refinement.
My house was raised in August of 2020. Tedd came shortly after to the site to see the project. During that visit, he asked if HVP might consider becoming a building partner with Bensonwood. He explained that if so, they had a client nearby who would soon be building a new home.
What stood out to me was not just the opportunity, but the way it was framed. It was not about installing a product or simply executing a set of drawings. It was about shared responsibility for the outcome.
At the time, HVP was not building new homes, and I was not sure what that path would look like. After further discussion, HVP agreed to work with Bensonwood on that nearby project. In this partnership, Bensonwood supplies the shell of the house, including the structural frame and enclosure system. As the general contractor, HVP is responsible for the site work, foundation, mechanical systems, and interior and exterior finishes. This division of work allows each team to focus on what they do best, while maintaining clear accountability for performance and quality.
Sitework began in early spring of 2021, and by early summer of 2022, the process felt clear and workable.
For context, Bensonwood has long been known for its custom timber frame homes, work that’s careful, deliberate, and rooted in a deep understanding of how buildings perform over time. More recently, they’ve taken what they’ve learned over decades of one-off projects and built systems around it. Through their Unity and OpenHome programs, they’re applying the same thinking, attention to detail, and performance standards to homes that are more repeatable, predictable, and attainable, without giving up the qualities that matter most.
In the winter of 2025, Bensonwood formally invited HVP into a partnership.
As we continue to build more sustainable homes, our work with Bensonwood remains focused on the same priorities that guided my own project. Making decisions early. Reducing risk where it matters most. Using systems that support consistent outcomes. We recently completed an OpenHome together and currently have two Unity projects moving through our upfront pre construction services phase. We look forward to continuing to partner with Bensonwood as we take on future projects together.
Looking back, I am glad I took the time to attend Tedd’s lecture all those years ago.