New life sciences building cements a family legacy
The facility will reflect three generations of Theilackers, including the building’s design manager, an SDSU alumnus and the creator of Campanile Mall.
San Diego State University’s new Life Sciences building will be more than a state-of-the-art facility to support biological research and training — it is already a symbol of legacy going back generations.
Michael Wm. Theilacker, design manager at Hensel Phelps, leapt at the opportunity to manage the design for the new building, his first project with SDSU.
Working with an array of campus stakeholders and university partners, his design team incorporated student, faculty and staff needs and sustainability features into the blueprints. Now under construction and on track for a 2027 opening, the building will feature cutting-edge laboratory facilities for teaching and research, along with indoor and outdoor study spaces — including one of special significance to his family.
On top of managing the building’s design, Theilacker and his family made a gift toward an outdoor seating area at the entrance of the building. Theilacker Terrace will be adorned with the delicate blossoms of desert willow trees, one of his father’s favorites.
While this project is a first for Theilacker, his father had a longstanding history of collaboration with SDSU and a deep commitment to supporting its growth and student success.
The senior Michael A. Theilacker was a landscape architect who contributed to the design of iconic spots across San Diego, from the Gaslamp Quarter to Founder’s Plaza in Balboa Park, Shelter Island, various projects at SeaWorld, the Mission Trails visitor center, and even parts of SDSU and SDSU Imperial Valley. At one point, he worked as a master planner for SDSU, helping design university landmarks including Campanile Mall, and served on several design review boards responsible for reviewing new campus projects.
“My husband graduated in architecture and when we got to San Diego, he couldn't find a job in architecture, so he went to work for a landscape architect,” said his wife Jeannie Theilacker. He loved it so much, he never went back.
“He fell in love with the outside of the building and not the actual buildings,” she added. “His thought was, ‘I could make a magnificent building and the landscape architect could come along and ruin it with a bad landscape.’”
Inspired by his father’s career, Michael Wm. Theilacker pursued construction management and has been leaving his own mark on the city he grew up in. When he met his wife, Joyce Theilacker, he found that she too was a San Diego native with deep SDSU ties.
She recalls childhood memories of tailgating at SDSU football games, begging her mom for an SDSU sweatshirt that she sported proudly before devastatingly finding it chewed up by her cousin’s hamster, and later, as a community college student, listening to concerts outside the amphitheater with her future husband.
Years later, she was thrilled when their son Michael Z. Theilacker decided to attend SDSU.
“I loved SDSU. That was exactly where I wanted to be,” Michael Z. Theilacker said.
“I enjoyed the people I met and love the friends I still have to this day,” he continued. “The professors made sure I was the best student version of myself and I'll always be appreciative of that. You don't realize how special that place is until you're there. You realize just how big of an impact that place can have — for me, for people I know who attended, and even for those who didn’t but still find their way there.
“It's such a big impact on San Diego, and to be a part of that is great.”
Michael Z. Theilacker graduated in 2020 with a degree in Recreation and Tourism Management with an emphasis in Sustainability. Like his father and grandfather, he is pursuing a career where he can give back to his city in his own way, as a math teacher and volleyball coach at St. Augustine High School in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood.
“To know that our family will be a part of the new science building is amazing and hopefully those students get to live out their wildest dreams and make those a reality,” he said.
Artist's rendition of the future Theilacker Terrace at the Life Sciences building. (Image: SmithGroup)
Michael A. Theilacker died in 2019, but his family’s legacy will be memorialized by the new life sciences building his son helped design, at the school his grandson graduated from. With their gift toward an outdoor space, the family is grateful to honor the eldest Theilacker’s landscape work across San Diego, while celebrating the entire family’s connections to SDSU.
“It's all combined — Dad, with the landscapes he created at SDSU, Michael Zackery with his studies there, and my good fortune of being able to work on this project,” said Michael Wm. Theilacker. “We are truly grateful. The gift's in the Theilacker name. It's for us all.”
The construction site lies on the northeast corner of campus along Canyon Crest Drive, just northwest of the Chemical Sciences Laboratory.
“It's going to be a connection to all of us for our lifetimes and our family's lifetime,” Joyce Theilacker said. “As we drive down I-8 every week, we'll get to see it as it goes up. Just having that familial connection to a project deepens those roots to San Diego State.”
Additional information on the Life Sciences building and naming opportunities can be found online.
