DURHAM - There's a spot along Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard (U.S. 15-501), sandwiched between the cacophony of the highway and the bustle of New Hope Commons, where bamboos sway in the breeze in a place of art and contemplation.

It's called Straw Valley, an artist enclave originally built in the 1960s by Robert Black and Ormond Sanderson, two young artists who took old farm buildings and gradually expanded them into a contemporary-style home, a pottery store, a kiln and space for what became some of the Triangle's most well-known art galleries.

Scott Bednaz, co-owner of Raleigh-based Tallus Development Group, first came upon the property in 1997 and was struck by the architecture.

Bednaz has been working on it for the past four years, through the recession and multiple financial hurdles, and recently reopened Straw Valley to the public.

"This is such a unique structure, and I thought it needed to be restored and saved," Bednaz said. "It was something about the architecture that I liked. It's very Frank Lloyd Wright."

Bednaz intends to rent out the house for parties, weddings, corporate functions and other events. To supplement income in the meantime, he also has opened Straw Valley Café, which serves coffee, wine and beer and pastries.

The café is housed in a 7,700-square-foot commercial building fronting the boulevard that is also home to Once & Again, a furniture consignment shop owned by Bednaz's parents, who moved the store from the South Square area to Straw Valley to help with expenses.

The sizable residential home and courtyard, estimated by Bednaz to be a combined 10,000 square feet, is also open to cafe customers, who can lounge on the contemporary-style furniture for sale and use the Wi-Fi connection. There is now also an art gallery in the house named Sanderson Gallery.

Like Black and Sanderson, who built out the property piece by piece, Bednaz also has been forced by economic circumstances to renovate Straw Valley organically.

Tallus Development bought the 5420 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. property for $1.4 million in 2007. At the time, banks were lining up to give him loans, Bednaz said.

But after the recession hit, rules for real estate appraisals tightened. Banks could no longer send their own appraisers out to sites and instead bid out the work.

Although Bednaz had already closed on the property and presented plans to his bank to renovate it, he said the appraiser who came recommended it for demolition. Bednaz declined to name his bank.

"It knocked the wind out of me," Bednaz said. "That's when we just decided that we'll have to do the repairs ourselves."

Since then, Bednaz said, he has put more than $500,000 of his own money into Straw Valley.

Now, four years later, he has mostly finished the project.

He's still chipping away at it - blowing leaves, fixing the roof and cleaning the fountain himself - and also added his own touch to Straw Valley. Drawing inspiration from the craftsmanship on site, Bednaz built a wall of flower containers using cinderblocks left from construction.

"The good thing about this recession is that it puts things into perspective," Bednaz said. "Back in the day, I was putting on a jacket and being a 'developer.' But I find now that I like doing unique projects. I've learned how to be more economical."

For the next phase of Straw Valley, Bednaz is seeking private investors for a planned $10 million boutique hotel.

He also bought 5504 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. for $1.1 million in 2008. That property, adjacent to Straw Valley, houses Pomegranate Kitchen and other small businesses.

Bednaz's work on the property has drawn the attention of artists who remember Straw Valley, where Minta Bell Design Group, Craft House of Durham and Somerhill Gallery all once operated.

Sandy Milroy, a tapestry weaver and painter who was shop manager of the pottery store in the '60s, came to visit Straw Valley for the grand opening, and Bednaz asked her to display her artwork in Sanderson Gallery.

Straw Valley was the "central place" where her artistic journey was launched, according to Milroy. It was there that she heard her calling in tapestry weaving, which became a decades-long journey into Africa, England and Scotland.

"There's something beautiful in the fact that you would've expected this to be torn down, but it's not," Milroy said.

Milroy can still point to details in the house that catch her eye and have inspired her over the years.

The front of the living room fireplace is handmade. The glass windows in the solarium are hand-etched. There are also pale linings in the ceiling beams that brighten up the rooms in spite of the low ceiling.

Even the old owners, Black and Sanderson, have been impressed with the work on the property when they've come to visit.

The two men, after selling the surrounding farmland to the developer of New Hope Commons in the '90s, had moved to Burlington in 2004.

"He has done a very sensitive job," Sanderson said of Bednaz's work. "He has retained the whole atmosphere," added Black.

The two originally came to live at Straw Valley in 1958, renting it from Black's uncle and hoping to establish a place where they could work on their crafts in pottery and sculpture, and perhaps make a living with a store.

Over the years, they began adding to the buildings, using whatever materials they could get their hands on.

The marble dust flooring came from what was left over from construction of the N.C. General Assembly. The heart pine wood was salvaged from nearby abandoned farmhouses and slave cabins.

Other parts of the house came from the Watts House and the Venable Warehouse in Durham.

They also brainstormed ways to attract customers and even raised sheep, a ram and a peacock on site.

"Everything about it was, I guess you could say, organic," Black said and chuckled. "I don't think we could have done that again."