December 28, 1984

AnAppraisal When officials of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in 1981 unveiled the first design for the skyscraper they hope to build beside their landmark church on Park Avenue, the tower of reflective glass by Edward Durell Stone Associates was so inappropriate that the question seemed not whether the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission would reject it, but when. Though both the church and the Landmarks Commission took their time in presenting the design and deliberating over it, the answer, when it finally came last June, was just what had been expected. The commission said no, and its members denounced the building so vehemently that another question soon arose - could any office tower at this site win the commission's approval? A Revised Design The coming year seems fairly certain to provide an answer, for St. Bartholomew's went before the Landmarks Commission last week to try again with a new, and substantially revised, design. The architect is the same - Peter Capone, president of the Edward Durell Stone firm - but the buildings could not be more different. Indeed, like a politician who runs against his own record, Mr. Capone's new design renounces every principle of his first one.

The winter's first snowfall blanketed the New York metropolitan region yesterday, baffling forecasters with its severity and tying up traffic on roads and rail lines and at airports. The accumulation - eight inches in some areas - surprised the National Weather Service, which had originally predicted little more than a dusting of snow overnight and was forced to revise its forecast several times during the day as the storm changed direction. ''We haven't the slightest idea why we busted it,'' said the service's chief meteorologist, Harold Gibson. ''If we had the same situation tonight, I don't think we would forecast it right.''

For anyone feeling threatened by the spread of little computers into businesses, schools and homes, there is still a sanctuary in the developed world where the abacus is king and floppy disks are badly manufactured phonograph records. No young Russians sit glued to video screens chasing invaders from outer space, and none of their older brothers are busy at their personal computers finding ways to break into private mainframes. The situation is one that may give comfort to the guardians of secrecy in the Kremlin. But it is one that is alarming members of the scientific and academic elite, who are saying that unless something is done to raise computer consciousness in the Soviet Union, the East-West gap in electronic technology will become unbridgeable.

''The right of a competent adult patient to refuse medical treatment constitutionally guaranteed right which must not be abridged.'' - The California Court of Appeal for the Second District (A1:1.)

With deregulation of the travel- agent industry taking effect Jan. 1, some of the nation's biggest companies are considering going into the airline-ticket sales business themselves, a change that could save them millions of dollars and even generate income, at the expense of the travel agencies. One possibility that companies are considering is to turn their corporate travel departments into full-service travel agencies, thereby gaining commissions on bookings. Others options include establishing joint ventures with existing travel agencies, selling tickets to employees for private travel and arranging for discounts from travel agencies and airlines. 1982 C.A.B. Decision These choices result from a 1982 decision by the Civil Aeronautics Board to deregulate the sale of airline tickets on the date the board goes out of existence, ending the 40-year-old system that allowed only airlines and travel agents accredited by an airline industry trade group to sell tickets.