Doug Barnett had a hand in designing buildings from Denver to New York to Morocco.
The 87-year-old Denver architect, who died Feb. 19, also designed his family’s home in the Montclair neighborhood, using the colors of his daughters’ names: Jade, Coral and Heather.
Interment will be 2 p.m. today at Fort Logan, staging area A. On Saturday, a 2 p.m. service is planned at Montclair United Methodist Church, 1195 Newport St.
Barnett designed a “thoroughly modern house” in Montclair and added stained glass windows from a Denver mansion that was being demolished, said his daughter Coral Juras of Oak Ridge, Tenn.
He loved decorating for Christmas, and “you couldn’t get too glittery for him,” Juras said.
Barnett designed a much-loved playhouse for his daughters, which he said “cost a fortune,” according to a longtime friend, Jane Headstrom of Denver.
In addition his family’s house, local residences and commercial buildings, Barnett helped design a U.S. government-financed, renewable-energy development center in Marrakech, Morocco, in the 1970s.
Barnett also helped to remodel buildings at Lowry Air Force Base to house the first Air Force Academy cadets before the academy was built near Colorado Springs.
He designed the Fort Collins Coloradoan building and helped remodel the New York Daily News.
Douglas Ellsworth Barnett was born on July 20, 1920, in Peoria, Ill. He graduated from the University of Illinois in Urbana with a degree in architecture and served in the Navy during World War II. After the war, he designed sets for Paramount studios in Los Angeles for several months.
“I don’t know how he got the job,” his daughter Jade Barnett said. “I think he just waltzed out there and got it.”
In the 1940s, he had a Reo automobile and managed to shear off the top so he’d have a sunroof for a trip to Mexico.
In 1947, he stopped in Colorado to ski and never left, Jade Barnett said.
The bigger attraction, however, was Marjorie Hicks, whom he met when they were paired in a three-legged race at a Timberline Club picnic. The club was for tall people — he was 6-foot-5 and she was 5-foot-9. They married in 1950.
The two belonged to several dance groups, and they both competed in Colorado Masters Swimming Association meets, continuing the sport into their 70s.
In addition to his wife and daughters, Barnett is survived by another daughter, Heather Barnett Ponek, of Bakersfield, Calif., and four grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
