The Queens Zoo covers 18 acres on site formerly occupied by World's Fair. In background is N.Y. State Pavilion. 

The sea lion pool was constructed to conform as closely as possible with fun-loving animals' natural element.

The bear den seems to be carved out of bruins' normal habitat. Zoo was designed to eliminate bars and cages.

IT TOOK 185 years for it to happen, but the borough of Queens can finally boast its own zoo. (Every other borough has had one for years.) The animal and bird sanctuary covers 18 acres of land occupied by two world's fairs.

The Queens Zoo, which officially opened on Oct. 26, cost $3.5 million. It adjoins the Children's Zoo, which threw open its doors last February. Most of the creatures on exhibit are housed in setting closely approximating their natural habitats. The zoo, which is located in the Flushing Meadows-Corona park, also features an insect house and a landscaped aviary.

Admission to the new modern and spacious Queens Zoo is free. It is open to the public every day of the week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and can easily be reached by taking the IRT Flushing subway line's local to the 111th Street station.

The popular Heckscher Children's Zoo adjoins the new Queens Zoo. It came into existence on Feb. 28, 1968.

Mrs. Patianna Gillette-Infante, the supervising menagerie keeper, makes friends with one of the deer at the zoo..

TIVOLI IN NEW YORK: Map of the park planned for Flushing Meadows on site of the 1964-65 World's Fair. Photo shows park today, with New York City Building in foreground.

A plan for Flushing Meadows Park by a prize-winning international design team is being delayed because the City Controller's office is refusing payment for the first stage of the work, pending required investigation of the architects' contracts and status.

The problem began last October, when the Parks Department, eager to acquire the best architectural talent available, hired the three architects without coordinating with the Controller's office. As a result, the necessary, but belated, investigation has forced the project to a standstill.

The payments are being held up because two of the celebrated architects are not registered in this state; a quibble about whether work by a landscape architects is architecture rather than landscape architecture and the auditing of bills by the Controller's office for "reasonableness."

Planners who have seen the design for the old World's Fair site call it a breakthrough. They believe that it is as important for New York in the 20th century as Olmsted's Central Park was in the 19th century.

The architects for the project are Marcel, Breuer & Associates of New York and Kenzo Tange of Tokyo, and the landscape architects are Lawrence Halprin & Associates of San Francisco.

The Park Department's action in hiring the architects last fall was the first here to offer increased fees and a more encouraging climate toward innovation by top architects. As a result, the city has begun to attract architects of outstanding reputation, among them Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph. The city has also been experimenting with designs by young talent for parks and playgrounds.

The Flushing Meadows plan stresses activities rather than a pastoral quality. This form was chosen in response to the results of a survey of the needs of New York's most underprivileged areas. These needs go beyond the scarcity of open green space to the lack of recreational programs and facilities.

In an attempt to fill these requirements, the plan proposes a combination of landscaping and building for sports, entertainment and culture on every level from drag racing to little theater and picnicking.

There was some confusion yesterday about whether two famous structures of the World's Fair -- the Unisphere and the Federal Building -- would remain in the park. They were not on the tentative plan. The architects were out of town and could not be reached and their assistants warned against assuming that the absence of those buildings was an oversight. But Park Commissioner August Heckscher said that so far as he knew, the buildings would stay.

If the project proceeds into its final stages, it will provide outdoor playfields, indoor courts and an arts center. There will be a series of "adventure islands" in the existing lagoons. Some noisy activities would be sunk into landscaped earth "berms," in which protecting grassy slopes are raised at the edge of depressed playing fields.

"Spines" of restaurants, eating bars, shops and concessions would connect buildings and outdoor activity areas. All would focus on a landscaped plaza, or central meeting place. The facilities would be intended for all-year, day and night use.

Mr. Breuer and Mr. Tange are working on designs for buildings for recreational and cultural activities within this scheme, as well as a swim-bath and sport stadium. Preliminary possibilities being studied for the site include ball games of all kinds, tennis, track, ice hockey, bowling, billiards, boxing, wrestling, judo, movies, theater, television and a discotheque.

To speed the job, design was begun on the park plan in January, three months after the announcement of the project. Work proceeded while the contracts were being prepared and the Corporation Counsel's office checked them. They were signed in May and registered by the Controller's office.

By this time, the architects had already finished six month's work, which included the first phase of the job, site programing and design. They are now well into the second phase, actual building design. And, despite the money problem, all three men are meeting in Tokyo this week to continue their collaboration on the park.

Even after the plans are approved and paid for, the project must get approval from other city agencies before the work can be carried on.