October 10, 1993

TRAVELS WITH LIZBETH By Lars Eighner. 271 pp. New York: St. Martin's Press. $19.95.

"THIS big guy, six-one, 200 pounds, grabs you in a choke hold," says Charley Nelson, a little guy, five-eight, 130 pounds, wrapping his fingers around my neck. "Whatcha gonna do?" Depends on the neighborhood, I want to say. I'll either call a cop or go up to the Bronx and buy a gun. But Charley has no sense of humor about such things, so I say, "Grab his right sleeve with my left hand, swing my right arm . . ."

Finally, the end of a painful odyssey for a troubled building: Last week the ownership of the 52-story, 3.6 million-square-foot 55 Water Street was formally transferred from Olympia & York to the New Water Street Corporation, the majority of which is owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama. And now the more pleasant journey begins: taking the once-debt-laden building from run-down property to modern corporate center. It won't be a quick trip or a cheap one. It will cost well over $20 million to remove asbestos. The new owners plan to install a back-up electrical system to end, once and for all, the electricity outages that have plagued the building. And they've just hired the architects Kohn Pedersen Fox to come up with an extensive cosmetic remodeling plan as well.

Special Today: Home Design: Magazine Part 2 What is good value? Standards that work. * The hunt for good value. Three well-known designers -- Mario Buatta, Victoria Hagan, Walter Chatham -- shop the chain stores, then furnish rooms.

VISITING Polo Sport, the new Ralph Lauren extravaganza at 72d Street and Madison Avenue, is an astonishing experience. A monument in polished wood and Bauhaus design to European sports clothing of the 1930's, the place is in perfect period. The only anachronistic objects are the many video screens that dot the walls, playing tape loops of death-defying sports like windsurfing, mountain climbing, alpine skiing and bike and motor racing. High-performance sport is the latest passion. New Yorkers are out scaling craggy cliffs or biking through rough terrain, or they are rushing to Polo Sport to spend thousands of dollars dressing as sporting wannabees.