Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) has opened a new office location in Tampa, Fla. Overlooking Tampa Bay, the new location on N. Rocky Point Drive will feature a full team of professionals with space to welcome clients and partners and collaborate on projects. Francesco Spagna, principal, and Brian Pailes, associate principal, will lead SGH’s building enclosure and structural mechanics consulting practices, respectively.
“I’m excited to see what SGH will accomplish next—taking the Southeast by storm and building client relationships from our newest location in Florida,” says Niklas Vigener, SGH chief technical officer. “Francesco and Brian bring an infectious energy for collaboration and have hit the ground running to build a team that can take on exciting enclosure and corrosion challenges.”
Francesco has spent nearly 30 years building a practice with SGH, first in the Boston area and now in Tampa. He has extensive experience in designing and investigating building enclosure systems, building condition assessments, enclosure design consulting, and peer reviews, and has led major enclosure-related repair projects.
“I’m thrilled to put down roots in Tampa and bring SGH’s culture, values, tradition, and experience to Florida, while helping my clients with the unique building enclosure challenges they face here,” says Francesco. “It’s exciting to know we have a deep bench of experts all over the country that we can call to help tackle any engineering problem that comes our way.”
Pailes specializes in cathodic protection, nondestructive testing, concrete deterioration, corrosion, and concrete materials. He has worked on a wide variety of structures worldwide, with an emphasis on bridges and port facilities. He joined SGH in 2024 and has lived and worked in Tampa for more than 10 years.
“Joining Francesco here in Tampa and SGH’s nationwide network of multidisciplinary experts has already been so exciting,” says Pailes. “We have a great team in place with room for more technical professionals to join us, take on world-class projects, and have a ton of fun while doing it.”
