First-year architecture students have been busy preparing for the annual spring rite of Dragon Day, which will culminate in a parade through campus Friday, March 18, at 1 p.m.

Featuring mostly steel construction, the dragon will be suspended from four towers mounted to a frame atop a Volkswagen microbus chassis that has been used since 1995 to transport the dragon on its parade route. The creature will sway from its moorings and have moving parts.

"We have a system for the tail that will allow it to undulate like a snake," said Owen Smith '15.

Cornell's 110th Dragon Day parade revelry will also be a day out for the phoenix, traditionally created by engineering students to challenge the dragon, as well as a moth -- think Godzilla vs. Mothra -- designed by city and regional planning students.

Due to tighter restrictions on controlled fires on campus, the ritual burning of the dragon after it reaches the Arts Quad has become more symbolic, with approved materials (wood and agricultural products) instead of the beast-engulfing bonfires of previous years.

"For this year's students, the burn isn't as much of an issue," said Rand Hall Shop manager and Dragon Day adviser Brian Beeners.

Dragon Day co-president Ryan Petersen '15 said that "because we can't really burn the Dragon anymore ... we're trying to make that part of the tradition continue and be ceremonial and linked to the dragon, and have some sort of end to the parade."

The student project has engaged skills ranging from design to welding to hair styling. The group effort includes the marketing and sales of T-shirts that support Dragon Day projects.

"This year, as a class, they're very excited about this and very organized," Beeners said. "The upper-class students are already noticing that and are very pleased."

Petersen camped out in Rand Hall earlier this week for the all-night push to create and install a work of art in the second-floor windows, another Dragon Day tradition.

"It's a lot of work," he said. "We have to get T-shirts to the locations where they're needed when we're selling on campus, and we have to have people in the shop building something continuously, otherwise there is no dragon."

About 20 students have been involved in construction alone, including a core group of eight to 10, some of them Rand Shop TAs in training. There are a limited number of welders each year, Beeners said.

"We want to give them a chance to get in there and do something, try it out and develop some skills," he said. "The one thing I tell them is that each weld they do has got to be a little better than the one before. I want them to get their skills up so that later they can help me assist in other people's projects or do their own projects."

The Dragon Day Parade begins at Rand Hall around 1 p.m., travels east on University Avenue and then south on East Avenue, turns right (west) on Campus Road, then right onto the South Central walkway and continues north through Ho Plaza to the Arts Quad and the burn site.

Once the parade begins, vehicle access along the route will be restricted and bus routes may be delayed or rerouted.