Tthis article occured not long ago in the Denver Post. Dee Chirafisi of Kentwood City Properties is listing the property for sale. It is a converted church, and represents unique Denver real estate in a wonderful central-Denver location near the Sante Fe Arts District. By Elana Ashanti Jefferson Denver Post Staff Writer ... as published in the Denver Post on Thursday, June 8, 2006 ...  Artists often think of the bathroom as an inappropriate place to hang art. Lonnie Hanzon, on the other hand, so enjoys art in his bathroom that the Denver commercial artist created two bathrooms in his own home in the Santa Fe Arts District that are works of art unto themselves. The first, dubbed “The Grotto Rococo Loo,” is awash in shells and jewels. The other, known as “The East Garden,” is like a Monet painting in glass with a garden mosaic all over the walls and floor.
Hanzon’s largest job involves designing the annual Christmas tree at the Neiman Marcus flagship store in Dallas. But the artist is well-known in Colorado for his mosaic baseball arch outside Coors Field, and more recently for his vintage cabaret-meets-“Alice in Wonderland” at Lannie’s, the nightclub in the basement of the D&F Tower on the 16th Street Mall that opened earlier this year. Each of those projects is a public reflection of Hanzon’s quirky, vibrant and often nostalgic perspective. But stepping into the studio-home he shares with longtime partner Terry Koepsel and “two Max Fund specials,” a blue heeler named Blue and blotch mutt named Sketch, is like being immersed in the layers of texture and color in Hanzon’s work. “The right level o funk makes people feel comfortable (and) warm,” he says of his design philosophy. “The world has gotten too clean and sleek.”  Hanzon bought this 6,000-square-foot former church building in 1998.
“It was in tough shape,” he says after greeting a guest in an entryway in which an abstract solar system, forged with mesh, beads, glass and fiber-optic lights, swirls overhead. The walls are covered in maps, all from 1881, the same year the building was dedicated as the Congregational Church.
“We promised that we wouldn’t tear down the trees, and that it would be a creative place,” he recalls of the building purchase. The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development covered a portion of the steep renovation expenses that followed. That help enabled Hanzon to completely overhaul the church – with guidance from Denver’s Sprung Construction, which specializes in historic preservation. The original pulpit area remained intact and  now serves as the artist’s cavernous studio. Hanzon also salvaged some of the original wood flooring and married it with other salvage pieces such as mahogany molding and Tiffany glass windows from the former Empire Bank building in downtown Denver.
 Stepping further into the former church, visitors come upon Hanzon’s parlor, where, among other things, the artist keeps bound copies of Harper’s Bazaar from 1871 through 1930 for inspiration. The parlor is awash in jewel-tone paint and fabrics. Each mismatched chair – including one lush seat Hanzon gleaned from Djuna in Cherry Creek North after designing that shabby-chic home furnishings store – looks more comfortable and lived-in than the next.
 The room is separated from the kitchen by a curvy, mosaic bar made from “old glass & stone bits.” The piece is well suited to the chandelier overhead that artist Carol Sharpe made from old wine glasses.
The stairwell to Hanzon’s second floor is lined with colorful dog portraits by Jayne Harnett. Upstairs, antique cabinetry and a purple chaise lounge share the bedroom. “We wake up every morning to birds” in the chimney, Hanzon says of his bedroom. “A new family seems to move in every year.” The artist’s private bathroom features a wash basin mosaic created with semiprecious stones like agate and carnelian. But in this house, such details are the rule, not the exception. “The thing I love most is the powder room,” says real estate broker Dee Chirafisi with Kentwood City Properties. “Every time I go over there I see something new.” Hanzon flirted with the idea of selling his property four years ago. Then the economy changed after the Sept. 11 attacks. Now, the artist is intrigued by the fusion of art, culture, retail and residential space happening at Belmar, so the church-turned-flop house-turned-1960s activist den-turned-artist’s home-studio, stands ready for a new owner. The ideal buyer will have a creative bent. “There’s so much incredible stuff going on along Santa Fe Drive,” says Chirafisi, who will list Hanzon’s old church Friday. “The Santa Fe Arts District is a neighborhood in its prime, and (this property) is a jewel for that neighborhood.” So how much to own this particular sliver of Denver history? The asking price is $1,050,000. Hanzon’s installed artwork can be negotiated into the deal. For a virtual tour and more information on this property visit Dee Chirafisi's website: www.denverdee.com
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