Crafting a coastal compound with heart, soul, and serious style is the Bessey Construction way.

There are builders who make houses, and then there are visionaries who reshape the very idea of how people live. On Nantucket, that distinction belongs to Laura and J.D. Bessey of Bessey Construction, whose work dots the island with homes that are unmistakably theirs: crisp, clean-lined coastal architecture; interiors shaped by Laura’s intuitive command of color, texture, and experience; and an almost uncanny ability to anticipate how families will use and enjoy every square foot.

With hundreds of residential projects completed on Nantucket alone, the Besseys have long been a benchmark for island craftsmanship. But their newest undertaking—a multi-structure compound on a one-acre lot designed as both a serene retreat and a high-functioning lifestyle property—distills everything they’ve learned over decades into one extraordinary statement home.

“We’ve built several homes for ourselves, and each time we learn something,” Laura says. “With this one, we took all those lessons and put them together in a fresh way.”

The result is a compound that feels effortless and inviting, while quietly embedding some of the most innovative, creative, and downright delightful residential design details on the island.

Set on a gracefully proportioned one-acre parcel, the property provides a purposeful sense of arrival as the drive opens onto an elegant car court that directs visitors naturally toward two structures: the main house to the left and a similarly scaled guest house to the right. “We wanted guests to feel like they had their own destination,” Laura says. “That sense of arrival matters.”