Expert: John Henry Architect - 12/17/2007

Question
We are looking at a home to purchase in Tiburon but the fireplaces (one in family room and one directly below in the master bedroom) are smack square in the beautiful view of the bay with windows on both sides.  Is it possible to remove these fireplaces and build new ones in another location of the house?

Answer
If the fireplaces are wood burning they are stacked for structural reasons and have a flu from the Master bedroom through the Family room.  
You can demolish the fireplaces as they normally do not carry any point loads from the roof or other floors unless there is steel or some other structural connection that you should have checked out by a structural engineer or by contacting the original architect before removing.
You can relocate the same type of fireplace anywhere else within the envelope unless your setbacks allow the fireplace chimney to be built on the outside wall.  Gas fired fireplaces do not need to be supported structurally from an upper floor down to the ground floor.  If they are veneered with stone or brick then some kind of extra framing would have to be added to pick up the weight.  
If these fireplaces are two sided or three sided then it may be that the architect suggested a central location in order to have radiant heat be used more effectively and the view was compromised for simply energy reasons.

Followup:
By envelope we generally mean the perimeter walls.  If your side walls are on the side setback then you cannot build the fireplace on the outside walls in the setback unless there is a provision in your local codes to do that.  This would be the least costly way to rebuild the fireplaces -- by relocating on the outside wall.  If not, then you will have to cut out framing to build inside the perimeter walls.