The October issue of Chicago Magazine ran an article about St. Johannes Cemetary, the 5-acre plot of land that has become a spot of contention for the future development plans of O'Hare Airport. Mayor Daley is staking a lot on the modernization of the airport, but descendants of the 160 year-old cemetery's residents are understandably peeved.
While I'm sure there are numerous legal precedents for this type of clash between eternal land rights and the forces of progress, I'm more interested in the architectural and infrastructural ramifications. What if the cemetery stayed? What if the two shared custody of the ground? Could the runway be elevated off the ground? Perhaps in the dead of night 12 CF-47 Chinook helicopters could grab the parcel by the edges and hoist it above the ground. Then fly the whole lot, dirt and all, to plug up a nearby depression in the earth. Maybe place it in an abandoned gravel quarry. Or revive John Ronan's vision for the Old Post Office.
I can only imagine that the final solution should somehow balance the needs of both the cemetery and the airport. Perhaps the permanent levitation of a large swath of land in the airspace above a runway. A literal translation of the metaphorical ascent to heaven, aided not by divine redemption but by aged DeHavilland turboprops.
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