A computer generated image from the winning zoo design.

The city’s new zoo will be built to designs drawn up by French architects on six islands in St. Petersburg’s Yuntolovo district in the Primorsky district, with each island symbolizing a different part of world.

The French architectural studio Beckman-N’Thepe Architects won the international contest for the construction of the new zoo in St. Petersburg on Friday.

The Frenchmen proposed turning the territory designated for the zoo into an archipelago of six islands with the help of six canals. Each island will present the plant and animal kingdoms of all six continents.

The cost of the French plan is estimated at $395 million and is particularly attractive due to the phased implementation its construction, the press service of the St. Petersburg government said.

Beckman-N’Thepe competed with a joint design created by two Russian architectural companies – the Ukhov Architectural Studio and the Studio-17 Architectural Bureau. The French architects received 12 votes out of a total of 14 in the Expert Council.

The city’s chief architect Yuri Mityurev said that in choosing the winner the jury weighed up three main criteria — the possibility of opening the zoo during the first stage of the implementation of the plans, the technological underpinning of the project and its interest in terms of its conception, Fontanka reported.

It is possible that not all the ideas [in the plan] will be implemented,” he said.

Governor Valentina Matviyenko said the city would finance the engineering infrastructure for the new zoo. It also plans to attract major private companies to construction of the pavilions and open-air cages.

I hope business will answer the call and make a contribution to this much needed and important project,” Matviyenko said.

The idea of moving the Leningrad Zoo to the Yuntolovo district first arose in 1992, having been proposed by the zoo’s then director Ivan Korneyev. The new zoo will be located on a territory of about 300 hectares.