Carl Freeman Burmeister Jr. was born April 6, 1923, in Pensacola, Florida to Carl Freeman Sr. (1900-1965) and Georgina C. Bjornsen Burmeister (1890-1986). Burmeister worked at the family-owned Carl's Bakery until he graduated from Pensacola High School in 1941. He briefly studied Business Administration at the University of Tennessee before enlisting in the U.S. army as an infantryman in 1942. In 1943, Burmeister transferred to the Aviation Cadet Program, in which he received flight training and attended engineering classes at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He went on to serve as a flight instructor in the US Army Air Corp until his honorable discharge at the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1945.

In 1947, Burmeister married Sara Mozelle Bonner (1926-2009). He enrolled at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (A.P.I., now Auburn University) in 1948, where he became a member of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society and the Scarab National Architectural Fraternity. He graduated in 1951 with a Bachelors of Architecture, and obtained his architectural registration from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards in 1952. He was licensed to practice architecture in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi.

Burmeister began his career as an architect and designer employed by the architectural-engineering firm of Dunwoody, MacEwen, Hall and Furguson in Albany, Georgia from 1951 to 1953. Following this, he joined the firm of Arch R. Winter and T. Howard Ellis as an architect and designer. In this position, he worked on the award-winning design of the Isle Dauphine Club.

In 1956, Burmeister established his own firm, Carl F. Burmeister, Jr., A.I.A., Architect. From 1960 to 1963 he entered into a partnership, Burmeister and Bealle, Architects, with Thomas B. Bealle Jr., before re-establishing his own firm again. Between 1967 and 1969 he engaged in a joint venture with the firm of Harry Inge Johnstone and Edward L. Faddis. From 1970 to 1974 Burmeister associated with the firm of Holmes and Geer, Architects-Engineers, and from 1974 to 1979 he associated with the firm of Nicholas H. Holmes, Jr., FAIA, Architect. In 1979, he once again reestablished his independent firm. Burmeister continued to work with the firm Holmes and Holmes through the 1980s and 1990s, until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Burmeister was a member of the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.). He served as treasurer of the Mobile chapter from 1967 to 1969, as vice president from 1969 to 1970, and as president from 1977 to 1978. In 1978, he also served on the Alabama Council of Architects as representative of the A.I.A. Mobile chapter. In 1979, the A.I.A. appointed him to the National Committee on Public Education.

Burmeister's architectural designs were diverse, including commercial structures, church buildings, offices, and residences. He did extensive work on educational facilities, from designing public schools, to repairing hundreds of Mobile County school buildings damaged by Hurricane Frederick in 1979, to large projects on the campus of the University of South Alabama, including the library, business and management studies building, and the student recreation center. He also notably worked on the restoration of the Alabama Capitol Building in Montgomery with Nicholas H. Holmes Jr.

Burmeister died in 2012.