Our last apt was the only one that had a fire place. It was built in the early '70's and they designed it so that the apt next door had its fireplace on the same wall. This design made the hearth more than twice as wide as it should be. There was plenty of room on the other wall for a wide screen, but you couldn't put your seating directly across from the TV without blocking the fire place. We had two choices when we moved. One duplex with a lot of shared wall space and a fire place, the other with only one shared wall at the opposite end of our unit from our living room and no fireplace. We chose the latter! This was six years ago and I was thinking, which place can I crank it up and not get complaints. The downside is that this place was built in the late '50's and still has the original single pane windows so it gets pretty chilly in the winter.