Design of the SportSunShelters™
When the Melanoma Foundation of New England received a grant from Major League Baseball to develop effective sun shelters for Little Leaguers, the objective was to:
- Develop a system whereby the shelters could be prefabricated at a reasonable cost
- Design shelters that the players and communities would like
- Keep kids out of the sun for at least half of each game or practice
Our belief is that if the players like the shelters, then they just might take our message seriously: it is very important to protect yourself in the sun. That's why we developed the concept of the SunSafe Rules of Sport and have them posted on our shelters as a part of the agreement we sign with each organization that wants our shelters on their fields. Our goal was also to create shelters that are attractive. Most playing fields have high-visibility locations, and it is important to have community support for projects such as this.
Based on the responses that our shelters have generated to date, it would seem that we have succeeded. The shelters are clearly an attractive addition to each field where they have been built.
When the grant arrived from Major League Baseball in the fall of 2005, our immediate goal was to develop an attractive design. We approached the Boston Society of Architects and then met with the partners of one of Boston's best known firms: CBT Architects. This firm has designed buildings for many schools and colleges in New England and has over 100 employees. Time was short. It turned out that several months was actually not much time to generate a good design, so the decision was made for this firm to hold an in-house contest to design our shelters, and 21 entries were submitted by February of 2006.
In order to judge the contest, we assembled a panel of judges comprised of:
- Janet Marie Smith, Architect for the Boston Red Sox and designer of Camden Yards, Baltimore
- John Beraradi, Director, Massachusetts Little League
- George Berardi, Director, Massachusetts Little League
- Mel Rubin, Chair, Melanoma Foundation of New England (MFNE)
- Martin Padley, Marketing Director and Board Member, MFNE
- Steve Feldman, Board Member, MFNE and Little League coach
- Deb Girard, Executive Director, MFNE
The architect, Richard Seltenrich
The designs ranged from pragmatic to futuristic and many were deemed to be very original. The winning design was created by Richard Seltenrich then a 29-old architect who had been with CBT for several years. When he was growing up in Ipswich, MA, Seltenrich loved to play baseball and was an avid Little Leaguer. His concept was to design a shelter that would have the feel of a big league ballpark. The panel of judges agreed with him, and this was the primary reason that his design was selected. As the winner of the contest, Seltenrich received a check from the Foundation for $1,500. The two runners up each received checks of $500.
This rendering of the sun shelter was prepared by the architect, Richard Seltenrich.