Since opening in 2017, Public Records has established itself as one of New York’s crucial hubs for culture, encompassing a record store, vegan restaurant, a Sound Room for live shows and some of the city’s best DJ bills, and, as of last winter, the soigne lounge Upstairs.
This summer, founders Shane Davis and Francis Harris moved outside, reconceptualizing the asphalt lot adjacent to the space’s airy garden into the Nursery. Local firm Mattaforma designed a U-shaped, passively heated and cooled greenhouse from shipping containers for the space, which can serve as private dining in good weather and as storage for Public Records’ ample plant collection during the winter. L.A.’s Cactus Store offered landscape design, while Brooklyn’s Space Exploration iterated the elegant DJ booth.
On Sundays all summer long, that booth will be graced by some major talent: for Pride weekend, DJ Sprinkles and Bézeir absolutely levitated a heated, queer crowd; this past weekend, the legendary King Britt brought his essential Blacktronica lecture series to the Nursery and Sound Room for a day-long festival. None of this would matter without extraordinary sound, and like the rest of Public Records, the Nursery has got it. Ojas and NNNN crafted the sound system, with acoustic advisory by Arup, and Harris and his team constructed the custom DJ booth monitoring system with Dalbec Audio. Sounds good to us.
