August 19, 1981

Six real-estate companies were named yesterday to develop housing in Battery Park City that would reject the uniformity of other large projects and reflect the diversity of Manhattan neighborhoods. The companies were named by the Battery Park City Authority, which is under the auspices of the New York State Urban Development Corporation. The authority plans to have the concerns begin construction early next year on 1,809 units of housing. The project is expected to have a major impact on the lower Manhattan skyline. The housing will be built according to urban-design guidelines that require it to contain a mix of town houses, low-rise apartment buildings and high-rise towers, organized around a central park and a series of streets resembling those of the rest of Manhattan.

President Reagan today began a review of proposals aimed at achieving at least the $75 billion in additional budget cuts that his advisers said would be necessary to eliminate the Federal budget deficit by 1984. The proposed cuts, which were discussed at a three-hour meeting with David A. Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan, would be more than twice the amount approved by Congress and signed into law by Mr. Reagan this summer. The meeting was held at the Century Plaza Hotel here, where Mr. Reagan is staying this week before returning to his ranch in Santa Barbara. The Associated Press quoted Administration sources today as saying that Mr. Reagan's economic advisers were recommending that he cut military spending $10 billion to $20 billion a year, Asked about this, Larry Speakes, deputy White House press secretary, said that Mr. Stockman had made proposals for ''savings'' in military spending through management improvement and other steps. But Mr. Speakes said the Administration remained committed to increasing military spending 7 percent a year after inflation ''in the next several years.''

Two Federal agencies said today that they had begun studies of whether the air controllers' strike had impaired safety. The announcements were made by the Federal Aviation Administration and by the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent Federal agency. They came amid a growing safety debate between officials of the controllers' union and the Government. This afternoon, Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis, whose department includes the F.A.A., held a news conference with J. Lynn Helms, head of the aviation agency. As in the past, they said that safety was their paramount concern and that they would order flights cut back further if necessary to maintain safety.

Saving for retirement will be more attractive financially for many individuals under the new tax law. The rules are so beneficial, tax experts say, that virtually everyone with any kind of wage or salary income should be thinking of establishing a tax-exempt retirement account, even though the new provisions do not take effect until Jan. 1. ''Here you've got the simplest, safest tax shelter you could have,'' Herbert Paul, associate national tax director for Touche Ross & Company, said in an interview recently. ''This is a gift that everybody ought to take advantage of.'' In a sweeping expansion of the eligibility requirements for retirement savings accounts, the new tax law permits people who are already covered by qualified pension plans to establish Individual Retirement Accounts as well. A Significant Change ''Letting everyone have a retirement account is probably the most significant change in the law,'' said William M. Tartikoff, assistant counsel for the Investment Company Institute, a trade association for the mutual fund industry.

James Dixon York, accused of fatally shooting one New York City police officer and wounding another, waived extradition yesterday in Sumter, S.C. He was captured there Monday evening a week after the New York police received a tip on his whereabouts. Mr. York and another suspect in the case, Anthony LaBorde, who remains at large, were indicted in absentia in June for the April 16 shooting on a quiet Queens street of two officers from the 113th Precinct in St. Albans. The attackers, whose van had been stopped for a routine check, fired a fusillade of 30 bullets into the officers' patrol car without warning and fled.