Event and Floral Designer Philip Baloun Dead at 61

Philip Baloun, Darcy Miller, Martha Stewart, and Sylvia Weinstock

Photo: New York Social Diary

Leslie Koren, BizBash, New York

Event and floral designer Philip Baloun died at his Manhattan home Thursday after a short bout with pancreatic cancer. Known for creating fantastic and dramatic arrangements, he had a loyal following of high-society clients.

"He became a pioneer of combining floristry, interior design, lighting, carpenters, painters, seamstresses, and electricians to transform the most generic space into a custom world of wonder," said frequent collaborator Polly Onet, president of the event and marketing company Ober, Onet & Associates.

Baloun, 61, was a theater student and originally came to New York to be a director, but instead he worked for event designer Robert Renny Reynolds and others. He started his eponymous firm in 1979.

Baloun designed hundreds of events for prominent clients including George Soros, Shelby White, the LeFrak family, and Sandy Weill. He created corporate extravaganzas such as the Faberge gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur and Time magazine's 75th anniversary dinner, as well as over-the-top benefits including a Venetian-themed gala for the Washington National Opera and the Prince Charles gala at Lincoln Center, for which he created an enchanted forest and a classical garden on the promenade.

Go to New York Social Diary for their tribute/Obituary?