A tradition dating back to the late 19th century was revived Saturday night as 170 people from the College of Architecture showed up to the Beaux Arts Ball at Reid Park Zoo.

“”After missing eight years, the students didn’t really know what it was all about, but they found out pretty quickly,”” said College of Architecture Dean Chuck Albanese.

The ball is a tradition among design schools across the world and dates back to Paris in the 1880s. Design students and professionals mingle in an informal setting in which attendees wear outrageous costumes.

Nick Seibel, an architecture sophomore and designer for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, helped restart the student-run event when he wrote a paper about past arts balls for his Heritage and Traditions of the UA class last year.

“”I did some research on it, and the more students talked about it, the more everyone wanted to do it,”” Seibel said. “”But without an ally in the administration like Dean Albanese, the whole thing probably wouldn’t have happened.””

Albanese said he was excited to see the ball start again.

“”It’s a tradition all around the world and has been important to the social aspect of schools of design,”” Albanese said.

Kegan Tom, president of the UA chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students and a fifth-year architecture student, said the college wanted to revive this former tradition to help students network with other people in the design community.

Tom, one of the event’s chief organizers, said the goal was to help students build stronger

relationships with professionals and build a stronger community.

Andy Malanowski, vice president of the UA chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, helped select the event location. Malanowski said organizers wanted to hold the event at an attractive location, and that Reid Park Zoo seemed like a good fit.

As partygoers entered the zoo, they noticed the old rhino pen was decorated for the “”urban jungle”” theme. Reggae and punk music by local band SKITN drifted through the moonlit tree tops as people ate Thai food.

“”The turnout was great, and everyone had lots of fun,”” Malanowski said. “”We had people walking up at the door and buying tickets. We must have made about $500 at the door.””

Malanowski said about 15 prizes were given out for the more interesting costumes. Maggie Kane, a third-year architecture student, wore a Roman warrior-inspired helmet along with her T-square sword. She split the $100 grand prize with an unknown person who decorated a laundry hamper with several streamers as a jellyfish and wore it as a hat.

Albanese donated two of his own lithographs as some of the prizes awarded to people with impressive costumes.

“”We had fantastic comments, and everybody was very impressed,”” Malanowski said. “”Everyone had a lot of fun and behaved themselves, so there were no incidents. It was a really good night.””