Since 1976, our concern with resource conservation has inspired innovation in solar design and energy efficiency, both in earth-sheltered and frame construction. A strategy of using appropriate materials, methods, and design to create buildings that serve the occupants most efficiently has been a primary focus.
Sun & Earth can work from your designs or provide the creative concepts for the project of your dreams. Some of our design criteria are aesthetics, energy efficiency, ease of maintenance, durability, safety, and comfort. A designer who also builds can provide the most effective plans and custom home detailing, with cost-effectiveness as the primary consideration in all of our work.
With many years of experience in contracting, we are artisans in fine woodworking, timber framing, masonry, and metalworking. We can build in any media, with unique expertise in adobe, custom millwork, exposed timber construction, hydronic heating and cooling, passive and active solar systems, and building for the mobility impaired.
Sun & Earth Construction is dedicated to designing and building better structures for both working and living. Our goal is a building that meets the needs of the user. Our mission is to make the world a better place for our children and their children. We believe a better world is achievable with creative thinking and hard work. By fulfilling our clients’, customers’, and families’ needs with intelligent innovation, we have become leaders and models showing a way to a sustainable future.
Jim Graham, president of Sun and Earth Construction, is a third-generation New Mexican. He was born in Albuquerque, and his construction experience began when he was eight.
He earned his degree in biology from New Mexico State University. Jim’s experience includes a great diversity of work, from adobe restoration to power plant consultation. Resource conservation and energy-efficient design have been a primary interest since 1976. His designs have included wood, steel, and masonry. Much of his work has been influenced by his experience with remodeling, where he has learned about durability and versatility. In 1983, Sun & Earth began to bring innovation, intelligence, and integrity to the design and construction of sustainable buildings. Sun and Earth Construction are the foremost innovators in sustainable building in Southern NM.
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Jim builds houses to last for generations and centuries using skills learned from his father and grandfather throughout his life. Modern buildings are built with an economic life of 7- 40 years, but Jim’s philosophy is that a house he is commissioned to create will be a lasting monument and testimonial to the family it is built for and to Sun and Earth Construction. Jim has a personal as well as professional investment in every project.
Building sustainable homes isn’t Jim’s only passion. He’s been passionate about passive and active solar design and construction since 1976. Jim installs and sells active solar domestic hot water, radiant heating, and sustainable roof coating. He specializes in high-efficiency cooling, including radiant cooling.
Jim pursues innovation and leading-edge ideas in the realms of shelter design and materials science. He constantly tests and monitors our materials, methods, and ideas. His goal, personally and professionally, is to make the world a better place for today’s children and their children.