Twelve years ago, David Bernhardt, a local contractor and owner of an H Street laundromat, bought a former carriage house in an alley behind the 1200 block of Florida Avenue NE. A carpenter by trade, Bernhardt, along with his family and neighbors, spent the better part of a decade converting the ramshackle building into an off-grid, self-sufficient house powered by four solar panels and rainwater.

For years, the Bernhardts lived above their laundromat on Fourth and H Street NE, now a hot yoga studio, and used the converted carriage house for storage. Occasionally, they would also throw small community events.

Since March 2018, the building has become the popular community space Dwell DC: It’s two stories tall, with a roof that has a pergola and a mini-pond. The first floor is like a garage where locals sign up to host yoga, meditation classes, and live music. Musicians and instructors sometimes charge admission for their events. Other times, the events are free.

But on November 23, the DIY arts and culture space was shut down by D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs because it wasn’t up to code as a residential building and didn’t have proper permits to operate as an event space.

For the past two years, Dwell has run on community involvement, says Hannah Bernhardt, David Bernhardt’s 23-year-old daughter who runs the programming. Dwell has provided a platform for lesser-known local acts, including Virginia hip-hop artists who often struggle to get booked in D.C., Hannah says.

Dwell advertises its programming by word-of-mouth and has a growing Instagram presence—a presence that ultimately caught the attention of the D.C. fire marshal’s office.

“Through the traction that we’ve been gaining online and as the community’s expanded, the [office of the fire marshal] caught wind of what was going on and came by to check it out,” Hannah says. “Almost everything we’ve been doing—even though it’s done well and I’m confident in the structure and the people who’ve helped us build it—none of it was done with permits or done up to code officially.”

A representative from the fire marshal’s office expressed concern over Dwell using the private space to host public events, per Hannah.

“At first, we were like, ‘What? These are our family and friends.’ Everyone who’s come through over the past few years, I consider them family. We’ve been blurring those lines—that’s what community is all about anyway,” Hannah says. “He also started taking photos of outlets and shit like that.”

Now, Dwell is working with DCRA and drumming up community support to bring the building up to code, Hannah says. A recent Instagram post in which Dwell asked for contacts for architects, engineers, and sprinkler professionals received a flood of responses.

DCRA declined to comment on the record.

In the meantime, the owners are banned from occupying the space except to improve safety, and all upcoming programming has been cancelled. Hannah’s hope is that if her family works all of this out with the city, Dwell can pave the way for similar DIY spaces to come.

“My hope—and I’m praying that this is the right direction and I’m not wasting my time on this—is that if we apply and get it up to code as a residential dwelling … it opens our doors for gathering, and that’ll be more impactful for other spaces that don’t have the opportunity to be mixed occupancy,” she says.

The night Dwell was shut down, Hannah and her brother, who also lived in the space, were told to pack their things. Her first thought was that all of Dwell’s momentum would be for nothing. “Nobody’s going to care and we’re just going to be a cool moment in D.C. DIY history,” she thought.

Then, after moving into her dad’s house—another converted carriage house behind 7th and H streets NE—Hannah shifted her focus to the future.

“Stage one is bringing it up to a residential dwelling, and stage two is to reopen and to start a conversation with [the D.C.] Council on the importance of DIY spaces,” she says. “This is a perfect time for them to take notice.”

This story has been updated to accurately reflect the number of solar panels at Dwell.