Explore the The glass village of this artwork, The Bottle Houses.
He received the inspiration to design the houses after receiving a postcard from his daughter in 1979 of a glass castle in British Columbia which she had visited. He began to collect over 25,000 recycled bottles from the community and dumps to build the spaces. After he retrieved them, he spent the winter in the basement cleaning the bottles, removing the labels, and planning the project, which he began to build in 1980 at the age of 66. The bottle house village houses a six-gabled house, tavern, chapel, gift shop and a replica of the lighthouse he worked in. The gable house was built at 20 by 14 feet (6.1 m × 4.3 m) using about 12,000 bottles that formed the three main sections. Arsenault carefully picked the size and colors of the bottles to create unique patterns on the building's façade as well as in the rooms when light shines through them. He built it by cementing 300 to 400 bottles per row, using about 85 bags of cement, the binding material, over a six-month period before it was finally open to the public in 1981 Then he designed the hexagon shaped tavern in 1982, later rebuilt in 1993, which only used 8,000 bottles, the harsh winter conditions called for the rebuilding of the Tavern, the initial roof and the central cylinder were able to be salvaged. The third building built was the Chapel in 1983, made with 10,000 bottles. The building during a sunset would shine colorful streams in from behind the altar, creating a feeling of peace for the guests as they take in the atmosphere of the site.