Sunliner Diner
Stainless-clad restaurant on the Alabama Gulf Coast, designed for full coastal wind exposure.
Pace, Florida · Licensed in 10 states
Designed to perform.Engineered to last.
True North Structural Engineering designs and evaluates buildings and structures across the Gulf Coast, the Southeast, and the United States — steel, concrete, masonry, and wood. We specialize in metal building foundations and cold-formed steel, and we take on the odd jobs that do not fit a category.
800+Projects delivered
10States licensed
50+Years combined experience
2022Founded in Pace, FL
Sheet S-1
What we do
Four things, done by the engineer who seals the drawings. Small enough that you talk to the person doing the work; experienced enough that the answer holds up in review.
01 / Design
Foundation & structural design
New buildings and structures, from the footing to the roof diaphragm. We size the members, detail the connections, and hand you a signed and sealed set your building department will accept.
- Pre-engineered metal buildings
- Cold-formed steel framing
- Concrete & masonry
- Structural steel & wood
- Seawalls, signs, light poles, equipment supports
02 / Delegated design
PEMB foundations & cold-formed steel
Two delegated scopes we run constantly — so we know where the reactions come from, what the building supplier needs back, and which details cause problems in the field.
- Metal building foundation design
- Anchor bolt & base plate layouts
- CFS wall & joist framing
- Deflection & drift coordination
03 / Assessment
Inspections & condition assessments
We look at what is already built and tell you plainly whether it works — before you buy it, after a storm hits it, or when something has started to move. We do not perform threshold inspections, and we perform special inspections only where the authority having jurisdiction authorizes us to.
- Structural condition assessments
- Damage evaluation — wind, fire, water, impact
- Settlement, cracking & deflection investigations
- Repair & retrofit design
- Feasibility studies for change of use
04 / Construction phase
Construction administration
The drawings are half the job. We stay on through construction so questions get answered by the engineer of record instead of guessed at in the field.
- Submittal & shop drawing review
- RFI responses
- Structural observation reports
- Wind load & product approval letters
- Field fixes & as-built resolution
Sheet S-2
Selected work
Restaurants, hangars, offices, banks, chapels, and yes, even a lift for manatees. Eight hundred projects in, the through-line is not a building type — it is knowing which load governs.
Corporate jet hangar
Clear-span hangar structure and slab for corporate aircraft, with overhead crane support framing.
FRP manatee lift
Fiber-reinforced polymer lift structure serving a marine mammal habitat in a saltwater environment.
PEMB slab modifications & crane additions
Slab and foundation modifications plus support framing for new bridge cranes in an existing metal building.
Tax collector's office
Two-story masonry and steel office building for a county tax collector.
Chapel addition
Wood-framed assembly addition tied into an existing chapel.
Sheet S-3
Where we practice
Home base is the Florida Panhandle. The seal travels — ten states today, and we add states when a client needs one.
Every set is sealed by a licensed professional engineer in the state of record. License numbers, certificates of authorization, and certificates of insurance are furnished on request — usually the same day you ask.
Working somewhere we are not yet registered? Tell us early. Comity licensure typically takes a few weeks, and we have pursued it for clients before.
Sheet S-4
The firm
Founded in August 2022 by Jacob Sumrall, M.S., P.E. The name True North symbolizes a desire to stay on an unwavering course towards excellence.
When you contact us, you will receive our utmost attention to detail and high quality customer service. We would love to help your vision become a reality.
True North is deliberately small. You will not be handed to a project manager three layers removed from the calculations; the engineer who answers your call is the one who runs the numbers and signs the sheet. That is the whole business model, and it is why our drawings come back faster than the size of our office would suggest.
Most of our work sits within a day's drive of the Gulf — which means wind, salt air, soft soils, and building officials who have seen what a bad detail does in a hurricane. We design for that on purpose, not as an afterthought at the end of a checklist.
- Founded
- August 2022
- Principal
- Jacob Sumrall, M.S., P.E.
- Office
- Pace, Florida
- Team
- Licensed PE, engineers-in-training, and project administration
- Projects
- 800+ delivered
- Experience
- 50+ years combined across the firm
Sheet S-5
Start a project
Send what you have — a sketch, an architectural set, a photo of the crack. We will tell you whether it is a structural problem, what it takes to solve it, and what it costs, before you commit to anything.
- Office
- 2608 Wallace Lake Rd.
Pace, FL 32571 - Phone
- (850) 696-6784
- Hours
- Monday – Friday, 9:00 – 5:00 Central
- Proposals
- Typically within one to two business days
Opens your email client with the message ready to send. Prefer to call? 850.696.6784.