Monday, October 28, 2013

Roger Federer Going Modern in Herrliberg?

He may be in the sunset of an almost freakishly stellar career on the tennis court—yesterday he lost in the finals of the Basel indoor tournament in his home country of Switzerland to Argentine Juan Martín del Potro—but tennis titan Roger Federer still rakes in vast sums of money, some of which he spends on high-priced real estate.*

In addition to a villa in South Africa and a luxury apartment in Dubai the low-key but luxe-living 17-time Grand Slam winner reportedly maintains a number of properties in Switzerland including (but perhaps not limited to) a terrace apartment in the wee lake-side municipality of Wollerau and a pair of newly constructed and very contemporary side-by-side chalets in the Swiss Alps town of Valbella—one for him and his family and the other for his parents—that are reportedly linked by an underground passage.

Mister Federer's most recent addition to his impressive real estate portfolio came in late 2011 when he and his missus, Mirka, spend somewhere around 29,000,000 Swiss Francs for a vacant 5,800 square meter parcel high on a steep and scenic slope above Lake Zurich in the Laubhölzli area of the historic and wealthy lake-side community of Herrliberg. Your Mama's currency and land conversion contraption shows those figures equal just about 32.4 million U.S. dollars (at today's rates) and a bit more than 1.4 acres.

Of course, Your Mama really have no idea if or what exactly Mister and Missus Federer plan to build on the prime piece of property in Herrliberg but a little birdie—let's call him Caleb Clockmaker—recently pointed Your Mama's nosy nose to the website of a fancy Swiss architecture firm that appears to have been commissioned to design a glassy, spacious and modern-minded three-story residence for the Federer family.

No details of the sleek abode are included on the architecture firm's digital portal but renderings indicate there will be a carport/motor court beneath a giant circular cut out through which a trio of trees grow, lots of glass-railed terraces with sweeping views over Lake Zurich, a smaller secondary building—presumably for guests or staff, an outdoor swimming pool that will most certainly cost a fortune to heat in the winter, and, even though it's just a short walk from the TC Herrliberg tennis club, a private tennis court.

*The Forbes folks estimated Mister Federer's income for the twelve month period between June 2012 and June 2013 to be about $71,500,000, the vast majority of which was derived from appearance fees, exhibition matches, and fat endorsement contracts with brands such as Rolex, Mercedes Benz, Nike, and Credit Suisse.

renderings: Arndt Geiger Herrmann

4 comments:

Carla Ridge said...

This looks like the guest house of Michael Bay's new place in Bel-Air, LOL. Sizewise, especially.

lil' gay boy said...

Me likee...

Anonymous said...

His net worth is estimated conservatively at $300M and he will retain much of his earning power beyond his playing years. He's obviously very astute financially. And so polite and courteous. He was in the suite next to mine at a NYC hotel during one US Open and we often rode the elevator together and would chat.
Gorgeous house and location if it is indeed what he is building, although Switzerland is too boring for my taste.
Thanks Mama for your European reporting which I find equally fascinating.

Sandpiper said...


Sadly, I now realize my open-minded appreciation of modern residential architecture has reached conceptual limits.

It's a personal thing.