A chrome-dipped dinosaur skeleton towers 135 feet above the lobby floor. Not a replica. Not a fibreglass prop, an actual Amphicoelias fragillimus skeleton, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered…
This is what happens when someone converts a 1912 power plant into a hotel and decides that standard lobby art isn’t going to cut it. The JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District built a whole museum int heir lobby instead!
The Fossil Fuel Connection Actually Makes Sense
The building generated electricity for Savannah from 1912 until 2005. Someone recognised the irony: fossil fuels powered the city, so why not fill the restored space with actual fossils?
The dinosaur, Miss Chromina Joule (playfully named after the unit of energy,) dominates the Generator Hall beneath soaring glass ceilings. The chrome coating reflecting everything.
An Entire Museum’s Worth Of Prehistoric Oddities
But the hotel designers didn’t just stop at dinosaur skeletons. Oversized geodes. A prehistoric tortoise shell. An Ice Age bear skeleton. The world’s largest copper nugget sits on display too…
Audio clips throughout the lobby explain the building’s history and restoration process. It could easily collapse into theme park territory, but the sheer scale of the space, those towering ceilings, the exposed industrial bones, keeps it grounded in something closer to visiting a natural history museum instead.
Three Hotels, One Power Plant
The property split itself into three separate hotel buildings, each with its own design philosophy.
The Power Plant building keeps the industrial aesthetic – exposed brick, vintage fixtures, modern-industrial styling paired with century-old architectural details.
The Atlantic building channels luxury yacht design with contemporary maritime details. Every piece of art is an original by Shane Pendley, commissioned to showcase maritime adventures. It houses District Live (the Live Nation-powered music venue) and Savannah’s tallest rooftop pool, the Compass Pool.
The Three Muses leans romantic: soft colours, magical realist art, polished marble interiors and riverfront views.
The Truly Unusual Dining Option
You can book a private dinner inside one of the original smokestacks where a mixologist creates interactive smoked cocktails whilst you dine within a century-old structure that once belched industrial smoke across Savannah’s skyline. Bliss!
FIND & BOOK NOW
PRICE : ★★★★☆
PREHISTORIC FACTOR : ★★★★★
BIZARRENESS : ★★★★★
