Restaurant Architect & Engineer — Florida

A restaurant architect in Florida does far more than design a dining room. Restaurant design is one of the most technically complex building types in commercial construction — it involves commercial kitchen exhaust systems, grease interceptors, Type I and Type II hood systems, fire suppression, health department compliance, ADA accessibility, occupancy load calculations, means of egress, and Florida Building Code compliance for commercial occupancies. At Designda Inc. / Pineland Engineering, our restaurant design process starts with your concept — your menu, your service model, your seating count, your brand — and works backward to a floor plan that makes your kitchen efficient, your dining room inviting, and your permit set complete. We coordinate architecture, structure, and MEP in-house, which means the drawings your building department receives are fully coordinated before submission. No conflicts between the architectural plan and the mechanical drawings. No waiting for a separate MEP firm to respond to plan review comments. We've designed restaurants in strip centers, freestanding buildings, hotel lobbies, food halls, and historic buildings throughout Florida. New construction, tenant build-outs, and renovations — we handle all of it.

In Florida, any food service establishment — restaurant, café, bar, food truck commissary, catering kitchen — must be approved by the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) before it can open. The FDOH reviews your floor plan, equipment layout, finish schedule, plumbing plan, and ventilation design to ensure the facility meets the Florida Food Safety Code (Chapter 64E-11, F.A.C.). The health department plan review is separate from the building department plan review, and the two sets of requirements don't always align perfectly. Our team is experienced in producing drawings that satisfy both simultaneously — reducing the back-and-forth that can add weeks or months to a restaurant opening timeline. Key health department requirements we address in every restaurant project include: three-compartment sink sizing and placement, handwashing sink locations (one per 300 square feet of kitchen area), commercial dishwasher type and clearances, grease interceptor sizing and location, refrigeration and dry storage square footage, finish materials (seamless, non-porous, and cleanable surfaces in all food preparation areas), and ventilation rates for commercial cooking equipment. We submit to the FDOH on your behalf and track the review to approval.

Restaurant MEP engineering is the most technically demanding aspect of restaurant design. The commercial kitchen is the heart of the building, and it drives nearly every MEP system in the facility. Mechanical (HVAC and exhaust): Commercial cooking equipment generates enormous heat loads and grease-laden exhaust. Type I hoods (for cooking equipment that produces grease) require a dedicated exhaust system with a fire suppression system, make-up air to replace the exhausted air, and HVAC designed to maintain comfortable temperatures in the dining room despite the heat load from the kitchen. We size and design all of these systems in-house. Electrical: Commercial kitchens are electrically intensive — three-phase power for large equipment, dedicated circuits for refrigeration, hood controls, and fire suppression, and careful load calculations to size the service entrance. We produce the electrical drawings, panel schedules, and load calculations as part of the permit set. Plumbing: Restaurant plumbing includes the three-compartment sink, handwashing sinks, floor drains (with trap primers), grease interceptor (interior or exterior, sized per the Florida Plumbing Code), ice machine drains, and the domestic water system. We produce the plumbing drawings and coordinate with the civil engineer on the grease interceptor connection to the sanitary sewer. Fire suppression: Type I hoods require an Ansul or equivalent wet chemical fire suppression system. We coordinate the fire suppression design with the hood manufacturer and include the suppression system layout in our drawings.

The scope of work — and the permit requirements — differ significantly depending on whether you're building a new restaurant from the ground up, building out a shell space in an existing commercial building, or renovating an existing restaurant. **New restaurant construction** requires a full set of architectural, structural, and MEP drawings for both the building shell and the interior fit-out. We design the building and the restaurant simultaneously, ensuring the structure, mechanical systems, and kitchen layout are coordinated from day one. **Tenant build-out** (fitting out a shell space in a strip center or commercial building) requires architectural and MEP drawings for the interior only. The structural drawings are typically limited to any interior structural modifications — removing walls, adding a mezzanine, or reinforcing the floor for heavy equipment. We review the existing building's structural drawings before design begins to ensure our interior modifications are compatible. **Restaurant renovation** involves modifying an existing permitted restaurant. The scope of the permit set depends on what's changing — if you're expanding the kitchen, adding a bar, or reconfiguring the dining room, we produce drawings for the modified areas. If you're changing the occupancy load or the means of egress, a full code compliance review is required. In all three cases, we submit to both the building department and the Florida Department of Health.

Southwest Florida is one of the fastest-growing restaurant markets in the country, driven by population growth, tourism, and a year-round dining culture. We've designed restaurants throughout Lee, Collier, Charlotte, and Sarasota counties — from fast-casual concepts in Cape Coral strip centers to fine dining in Naples and waterfront restaurants in Fort Myers Beach. Post-Hurricane Ian, many restaurant spaces in Lee County were damaged or destroyed. We've worked on restaurant rebuilds and renovations in the affected areas, navigating the post-Ian permitting environment and the FEMA substantial improvement requirements that apply to properties in flood zones. For waterfront restaurants — a common project type in Southwest Florida — we address the additional requirements of coastal construction: elevated foundations, flood zone compliance, CCCL setbacks, and the corrosion-resistant material requirements that apply in coastal environments.

We design restaurants throughout Florida. In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, we work within the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) requirements and the Miami-Dade and Broward county-specific amendments to the Florida Building Code. In the Tampa Bay area, we work with Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, and the City of Tampa building departments. In Orlando and Central Florida, we handle restaurant projects in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties. Regardless of location, our process is the same: licensed architect + licensed engineer, coordinated architecture and MEP drawings, health department submission, and responsive support through plan review and permit issuance. We are a Florida-licensed firm — not a regional one.