About

Ian Schnack is an NCARB Certified and Licensed Architect in the State of Arizona. Ian is currently the National Director of Product Design and Optimization for Meritage Homes, one of the largest home builders in the United States. As National Director, Ian oversees the development of all of Meritage's new home designs across the country.

In 2008, Ian received a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois with a concentration in design. Upon graduating, Ian packed up and traveled to Arizona to pursue a career with the local architectural firm Formwerks Studios. There, Ian was a Project Manager involved with all aspects of the project lifecycle. This started with initial client meetings, programming and following through to design development and construction documentation on several high-end residential and commercial projects. Formwerks Studios was additionally involved with several spec home projects partnering with a local contractor. Ian was responsible for scheduling, budgeting and construction administration on these time sensative projects.

This work gave Ian new insights into the builder side of the industry. In 2013, Ian received an offer from RKF Architectural / Modern Group to act as a Project Manager assisting with general operations, plan review, estimating, scheduling, and budget analysis for the exterior envelope packages of multi-million dollar residential and commercial projects.

The opportunity to work with Meritage Homes came in 2015 where Ian began as a Product Research Analyst. This work involved the development of a new methodology to create competitive product lineups for upcoming communities and new product series. Through this work, Ian was able to leverage his architectural knowledge and began creating conceptual designs for new Meritage plans. This effort resulted in saving of hundreds of thousands of dollars in both internal time and architectural design fees. A promotion to National Manager of Product Design and Optimization came shortly after. Ian was able to continue to leverage his architectural background and knowledge while focusing on product needs across the country. In late 2021, Ian was given the opportunity to lead the Product Design Department with Meritage Homes as the National Director.