Home Office

The Hoyts movie theater in Pennsauken, which fell silent after screening its last picture show more than three years ago, could become an office complex in its sequel, township officials and a developer said yesterday. Draft plans to renovate the multiplex will be presented to the planning board next Tuesday, said Terry Carr, the township's associate director for economic development. One tenant is close to signing a lease for about 25,000 square feet of the 58,000-square-foot building, Carr said.

With most rooms, describing the function is simple: Bedrooms are for sleeping, bathrooms for washing. But home offices? Not so easy to peg, and therefore a challenge to set up. For some, a home office is little more than a spot to pay bills. For others, it's a primary work space, a place to run a business or meet clients. But in all well-planned offices, function drives form. Function plays into whether you choose a quiet spot or something more in the household flow, says Lisa Kanarek, author of four books on home-office issues, the most recent of which is Home Office Solutions: Creating a Space That Works for You (Rockport, $15.99)

Laptops now surpass desktops as the number-one personal computer sold to consumers, the Consumer Electronics Association says. The mobility they represent is influencing home-office furnishings, too. "Time was when everything was about computer cabinetry - all kinds of gymnastics to accommodate big monitors," says West Chester architect Richard Buchanan. "Now, we're finding home offices tend to be very lovely sitting-room spaces where people can pull out a laptop and go to work.

The Philadelphia Park Flea Market, booted out of the racetrack's parking lot earlier this month to make way for slot machines, has found a new home just down the street. After a three-week hiatus, the market is set to reopen Sunday in the west lot of the Bucks County Technology Park at 4800 Street Rd. in Trevose, two miles west of the Philadelphia Park racetrack in Bensalem. Manager Arthur Loudon said the market might open Saturdays, too, if vendors and patrons agree. The office park has also agreed to host the flea market on Black Friday, the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving, and on Christmas Eve, he said.

A Philadelphia Muslim leader spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about the federal probe into alleged corruption that led FBI agents to search his home and office following the discovery of a bug in the mayor's office. "I don't know anything that I've done" that would have triggered such an investigation, Imam Shamsud-din Ali said. Ali spoke to reporters yesterday after a banquet at which he received a civic award - and only a few weeks after the FBI seized documents and computers from him on Oct. 8. Ali is a political ally of Mayor Street and has a debt-collection contract with the city.

The revelation that Mayor Street's office was bugged has fueled sales of countersurveillance products in the area, as residents and businesses wonder whether their homes and offices are safe from unwanted eavesdroppers. Scott Black, owner of the Spy Shops in Warminster and Ardmore, said sales of antibugging devices at his stores doubled Wednesday on news of the FBI's probe. He said he expected sales to triple yesterday. "The calls are coming from everybody," Black said. "We have elected officials calling us, business people, as well as individuals who might have a guilty conscience and think they might be being investigated for something.

Do you work at home? According to a 2000 study by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, the number of Americans telecommuting to work reached 8.5 million in 1999, and there were predictions that the number worldwide would reach 137 million by 2003. In May 2001, 19.8 million Americans usually did some work at home as part of their primary jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. These people, who reported working at home at least once a week, accounted for 15 percent of total employment.

Once upon a time, only doctors were on-call night and day. But now with pagers, cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys, workers in all occupations can be beckoned 24/7. Everyone from secretaries to CEOs has become so wired that the hot ticket in business networking is a wearable tech fashion show. On the runway, models show off the latest in belts, handbags and briefcases designed to accommodate gadgetry. Some employees thrive on this cult of connectivity. They take advantage of the flexibility in when and where they can work.

After months of debate and negotiations and an array of plans, the Township Council has at last approved building a 122-unit housing complex near Laurel Creek and an office park on the nearby Winner Farm. Mayor Howard Miller Jr. voted against the rezoning that would permit the housing complex. He raised a warning Monday about the legacy of the new development's density. "Once you give it, then other developers will come in and say, 'Let's make a deal,' " he said. Carl Bisgaier, attorney for Toll Bros.

My best friend has an office in a sleek, modern building in Cherry Hill with a sensibly large desk, lots of shelves, an ergonomically correct chair that's good for her back, and a wonderful secretary who sees to her paper chases. I have an old farm table that was seized like some pirate's booty at a yard sale 20 years ago and that occupies a corner of our family room. My "secretary" is an answering machine that works well in good weather, but seizes when it's damp, kind of like its owner's lower back.