An automotive showroom for the R.L. Taylor Motor Company, a restaurant supplies retailer under Adams-Burch, and a Pentecostal chapel with the Church of the Rapture—the building that occupies the southwest corner of 14th and T Streets NW has served many people in many ways. Its most recent and perhaps improbable career turn—as a guerrilla art space hidden in the heart of one of D.C.’s fastest-rising commercial corridors—came to a close on Saturday.

Citing improper permits and fire hazards, city inspectors shut down “Here & Now,” an art exhibit hosted by Transformer Gallery at the 1840 14th Street NW space. The temporary exhibit featured site-specific sculpture and installation art, some of it made using leftover odds and ends from the space.

“They were operating without a business permit, construction permits, and a whole boatload of other issues,” says Ken Wilson, chief fire inspector for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Wilson said that his office had received an anonymous tip that the building was being used to host auctions. He would not say who registered the complaint or when it was received.

Wilson arrived after inspector Kevin Smith and police interrupted artist Matt Mullican, who was giving a lecture about his work to a crowd of about two dozen people. (Mullican’s work is not in the show.) The officials evacuated the building and summoned Dan Ford, a representative from Four Points LLC, the development company that owns the building. Ford then changed the keypad combination on the door.

Inspectors Wilson and Smith told Ford that the incident was serious and that the matter would almost certainly lead to a hearing. Wilson noted as an example that fire extinguishers within the building were expired as of 2003. (Ford had no comment for this story. DCRA had no record of complaints against the building since 2004; a representative was not immediately available for comment.)

The 14 artists in “Here & Now” whose work fills the space—many of whom were on hand for a day of artists’ talks and dialogs—were not given an opportunity to claim their work before the building was sealed. It will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

“All of that work is basically being held hostage,” says Victoria Reis, director of Transformer, a nonprofit organization that promotes emerging artists. Transformer operates a storefront project space at 14th and P Streets NW, where a separate leg of the “Here & Now” sculpture exhibit is ongoing.

One of the works in “Here & Now” will die before the space is re-opened. An installation by Kyan Bishop and Kate Hardy features 100 goldfish in half-globes attached to the wall—none of which are going to last long without food.

“We’re trying to get in for fish removal,” Hardy explains.

Photos by Flickr user Vincent Gallegos.