January 23, 1983

Attracted by the concentration of Fortune 500 company headquarters in Westchester and Fairfield Counties, Holiday Inns has begun construction of hotels in White Plains and Stamford that will cater to corporate clients. According to Joseph Fuller, a White plains architect whose firm has designed both hotels, these new Holiday Inns ''will not look anything like'' the typical inn run by the chain.

As White House budget hands scurried about backstage last week trying to find the right numbers, their principal was front and center, looking to set the right tone. To mollify party moderates, President Reagan journeyed to Chicago for a fundraiser for Republican Senator Charles H. Percy, where he promised new proposals for job training for the unemployed. On the way, he dropped in on a nearby all-black parochial high school where, as if to reassure traditionalists, he emphasized the link between education and employment. At a cheerful news conference he celebrated the second anniversary of his inauguration with a review of ''the accumulated damage'' in economic and international affairs he had inherited and the progress he had made. Yesterday, he covered his social agenda, promising in his weekly radio address to press for Congressional action on tuition tax credits for private schools, school prayer and abortion.

JOHN was a scientist employed by a large corporation. He performed well enough, but he was not working up to his potential. Later, in therapy, it emerged that his father had discouraged him even in childhood from being aggressive and intellectually assertive. Mary had always subordinated her professional concerns to those of her highly successful husband, but recently she began to climb the corporate ladder in her own field. The conflicting demands of work and family obligations took their psychological toll, however, and she sought a counselor to help her explore her priorities and thus perform better on the job.

TRENTON OFFICIALS representing the state's Department of Transportation and Amtrak met in Washington last week to begin work on a plan for passenger rail service between Philadelphia and Atlantic City by Sept. 30, 1985. The deadline for completion of the plan, under legislation signed by President Reagan on Jan. 14, is June 1. The legislation provided $30 million to link Amtrak's Northeast Corridor - the Washington-Boston line - with Atlantic City. The chairman of the New Jersey task force that will meet regularly with an Amtrak team to determine how best to spend the $30 million is Melvin Lehr, the Assistant Commissioner of Transportation.

Take a 1950's vintage shopping center, add some shrubbery, skylights, fountains, a big new anchor store and a group of fast-food restaurants serving ''international'' foods, and what have you got? The shopping mall of the 80's, according to Lorna Rudnick, vice president of marketing for Kravco Inc., which is supervising a $30 million renovation of the Green Acres Shopping Center in Valley Stream, L.I. Built in 1956, on a 92-acre site off Sunrise Highway, Green Acres was one of the first malls on the Island. Now, according to Miss Rudnick, Kravco and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S., which are joint venture partners in the mall, have decided that it needs a facelift to keep it competitive.