Cal Poly Pomona, whose students have built beautiful, innovative Rose floats for 70 years, will build a new $3.7 million Rose Float facility.

Pomona, CA – The Rose Float Lab and Design Complex, scheduled to break ground in 2018, will include a new 5,700 square foot building that includes an electronics shop, hydraulic shop and a large bay for float construction. The 1/3-acre complex also includes a large outdoor courtyard and picnic area for design work, float building, meetings and student gatherings. In addition, the complex will include about 5,000 square feet of storage space.

The current Rose Float work area is an open-air warehouse structure that was built more than 30 years ago by students. The program needs better security for the equipment and shelter from the elements.

“From August through December, the Rose Float lab is a second home to dozens of students and volunteers,” said Janetta McDowell, Rose Float director and an alumna who volunteered as a student. “We are a student-designed and student-built program, which offers incredible learning opportunities in all disciplines. The new lab will give us the opportunity to be more innovative and imaginative.”

The $3.7 million project is being funded primarily through private donations, including a $1 million lead gift from alumnus Butch Lindley and his wife Vivien. To complete the facility and complex, the university has launched a Rose Float Lab Fund Raising Campaign to raise the remaining $800,000.

The Cal Poly Universities’ float is the only student-designed and built entry in the Rose Parade. A joint effort by students at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo since 1949, the team has won 57 awards including the 2017 Founder’s Trophy for most beautiful float built and decorated by volunteers from a community or organization.

For more information about the new Rose Float lab, including facility renderings, visit www.cpp.edu/rosefloatlab. General information about the Rose Float program is available at www.rosefloat.org.