November 2, 1986

PHILIP R. ADELMAN moved here from Canton, Ohio, in 1973 partly because he wanted to help renovate dilapidated row houses in struggling inner-city neighborhoods. He put some $15 million into 80 buildings in Over-the-Rhine and Prospect Hill, two hilly, sometimes scenic, grimy neighborhoods just north of downtown. ''I wanted to rebuild it, bring the middle class back into the city, make it a vibrant area and yet not cause gentrification,'' the 36-year-old Mr. Adelman said.

In the five seasons he has traveled from the status of a substitute quarterback to an apparent landslide winner of the Heisman Trophy, Vinny Testaverde has had to deal with the complexity of major-college football and the anguish of being forgotten. Only recently has he been confronted with the obstacle of pain. With the University of Miami trailing in the fourth quarter for the first time, and its unbeaten season threatened by the emotion and deception of rival Florida State, Testaverde's most remarkable quarter of the season led the Hurricanes to their eighth victory. Testaverde completed 10 of 11 fourth-quarter passes, for 185 of his 315 total yards, to turn a difficult game into a 41-23 victory at the Orange Bowl.

THIS Thursday, with Mayor Koch cutting the ribbon, F.A.O. Schwarz will move its Manhattan flagship store to the General Motors building, 93 feet away from the famous toy emporium that has been its home for 54 years. The auto showroom where G.M. once parked its finest has been transformed, at a cost of $6 million, into a home for talking bears, dinosaurs, Inhumanoids - and even a fleet of miniature Mercedes and Lamborghinis. It is a spectacular showcase intended to make even nostalgic long-time customers put aside their preference for the antique charms of the old store. Peter L. Harris, a pink-cheeked 42-year-old who has been Schwarz's chief executive for a year, views the new store as the first step of a major revitalization of the company. His investment firm, the Morse, Harris Group, acquired the 21-store chain last March with the faith that the market exists to support ambitious expansion plans. Schwarz is remodeling its stores in Bal Harbour and Palm Beach, Fla. This month it opened leased departments in B. Altman's six stores. Mr. Harris says five other department store chains have inquired about setting up similar boutiques, and he intends over the next several years to open about 75 new stores in affluent areas. ''There's a tremendous niche out there for a well-executed, high-end toy retailer,'' he said.

The movement to set up Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank has undergone a radical change. The movement began after 1967 as a drive by religious and far-right nationalist Jews to resettle the biblical heartland of Israel by erecting tent settlements wherever they could. It has become a migration of young couples in search of nothing more complicated than a house with a yard and a two-car garage. 'Outdated' Advice From Shultz A minority of the settlers still fit the original mold of Orthodox Jews wearing knitted yarmulkes and toting rifles. But the majority have a very different look. They are secular, white-collar professionals and Government employees who carry briefcases rather than M-16's and choose their settlements based not on a biblical map but on commuting times to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

THE Port of Seattle has proposed a monumental facelift designed to help restore the long-neglected harbor in this trade-dependent city. After nearly a year of secret negotiations with waterfront landowners, port officials unveiled plans last month for a three-pier, $70 million mixed-used development. If the public-private package goes through as envisioned, it could amount to the largest new development on the central waterfront in a generation.