But right now, it's a mass of wire and fiberglass worked on under a dripping tin roof in a muddy lot on the edge of the Pomona campus.
"I got to college and joined a sorority first weekend because I thought that's what I wanted," said Redlands High School graduate Katie Ruhm, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "But the float (committee) is my fraternity."
"I had other clubs I was involved in," said Olivia Moore, a junior majoring in business at Cal Poly Pomona, "but I'm a hands-on builder. I learned how to weld last year
Alison Stivers , 19 , and Kathryn Bohn, 20, both students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, glue screening to skeleton of the school's Rose Bowl float. (Frank Perez/Correspondent)
and I weld all the time now."The chance to give up winter vacation and family in favor of welding, spraying fiberglass and affixing thousands of flowers to the float is one of the most popular clubs at both Cal Poly campuses, according to Greg Lehr, the adviser to the universities' Rose Parade program.
"In total, there's 70 leaders barking orders at the army of volunteers," he said.
And those 70 float committee members are split between the Pomona and San Luis Obispo campuses, 220 miles apart. Each campus builds half of the float - San Luis Obispo traditionally assembling the back section, Pomona assembling the front - and brings them together after finals week in December.
And then it's a frantic sprint through the month, fitting everything together, making sure the moving parts all do so, moving the nearly complete float to Pasadena and then decorating, with the help of hundreds of volunteers each day in Pasadena.
Unlike other campus organizations, where getting to do the "good stuff" is reserved for older students or requires jumping through other hoops, everyone on the float committee gets to - and is expected - to work on the float.
"It's not like you can't touch a tool unless you're third year," Ruhm said.
Television cameras only show the right side of floats, known as the "camera side" to Rose Parade veterans, and many floats are much simpler on the left side, which is mostly seen by parade attendees .
"But Cal Poly likes to get creative with lots of animation," Lehr said.
Both sides of this year's float, dubbed "Tuxedo Air," will have animation and be studded with penguins longing to fly.
"We start thinking about the next year's float the day the parade ends," Moore said.
There's a concept contest in January on each campus that draws in about 100 entries each year. Rose Bowl officials go through the top suggestions from each float committee - making sure that next year's dream-based theme won't feature nothing but Sleeping Beauty floats, for instance - and give their top three choices in February. A final rendering of the float is done by mid-May.
"As much as you hate the float by the end, there's no feeling like it," Ruhm said.
Later this week, the float will make its slow and careful way to Pasadena. The final decoration stage, when hundreds of volunteers will festoon it with flowers - including white irises, ivy, silverleaf and chrysanthemums - take place in the five days after Christmas.
Losing out on much of winter break is a hard sacrifice, but some committee members are used to it.
"It sucks, but our families know," Ruhm said. "They're going to Disneyland in a couple of days. `Can't you go?' `No, probably not."'
In the final stretch before the parade, even communicating with family members falls by the wayside.
"I haven't texted my mom back in a week," Moore said.
"I should probably do that," Ruhm said.
Reach Beau via email, call him at 909-386-3826, or find him on Twitter @InlandEd.
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