Renaissance Developer Writes Popular Fiction with Western, Nature Themes says Construction Reporter
Industry: Real Estate
Mark Conkling is a true renaissance man, as a developer, builder, and Methodist Minister. An early adopter of green building techniques, he has a line of popular books.
New Mexico (PRUnderground) November 24th, 2014
Mark Conkling was an early adopter of green building practices, long before the current green phenomenon in the construction industry. He built passive and solar homes as far back as the 70’s, and continued throughout his career to integrate solar energy elements into his projects.
He was a proponent of the “dual monitoring system” which enabled homeowners to track and calibrate their energy usage. His first construction business was specifically focused on solar home construction. Conkling eventually built some 300 homes in Rio Rancho’s Eldorado Subdivision, “and most of them were solar in some way,” he says.
In 1995 he moved into the development end of the industry with Vista Entrada, a custom housing neighborhood in Rio Rancho. “We started with some friends, buying land, extending utilities, and selling lots to other people, other builders,” he says.
Today, at 73, Mark says he’s more interested in building people than houses–though a part of him will always be influenced by his years int the industry.
Conkling serves as a part-time United Methodist pastor for the Bernalillo United Methodist Church. This might seem a strange vocation for a builder, but his studies at the University of Oklahoma as a young man were in philiosophy and psychology–interests that serve a minister well.
Beginning in 2011 Conkling published his first in a series of novels: Prairie Dog Blues. This was followed by Killer Whale Blues, published in 2014, which looks at the role nature plays in healing broken lives. this book was a finalist for the 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.
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