Peter LaRochelle '25

My name is Peter LaRochelle, and I am a Growth and Structure of Cities major from the class of 2025. This summer, I interned with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) in Pittsfield, MA. BRPC is Berkshire County’s official regional planning agency, providing essential planning services to each of the county’s 32 municipalities. While the average county resident may never hear of BRPC, the agency plays a critical role in shaping “The Berkshires” behind the scenes.
 
One of BRPC’s latest initiatives is the development of BerkshiresOutside.org, the information hot spot for all things outdoors in the Berkshires. My primary role was to develop content for this website, which included writing engaging site descriptions, collecting photographs, and generating GPS data for unmapped trail systems throughout the county. Additionally, I managed outreach efforts by connecting with local businesses (such as hotels, real estate agencies, and outdoor retailors) to promote the website as a tool for engaging with customers/guests. This variety of tasks meant that I split my time between the office and the field. Some days, I spent eight hours writing descriptions, and on others, I explored the county as I visited hundreds of its recreational spaces, from small parks to expansive forests to the highest peaks in the state. 
 
Naturally, I scheduled my field days when the weather was nicest, but these trips rarely consisted of leisurely strolls under the sun. A day that captures the more rugged side of this work was when I had to map the entire collection of trails at the historic, now-defunct Beartown Ski Area, whose long-forgotten trails hadn’t been maintained in decades. I had to collect GPS data for any trail I could find, which meant I spent the day scrambling the hill to find any remnants of old trails, like slight clearings in vegetation, artificial landscape geometry, human debris, etc. Most of what I remember from this day was bushwhacking up and down steep slopes through ferns as high as my neck. However, I also recall the satisfaction of ending the day with a digital GPS file that almost perfectly resembled some of the old trail maps I used as guidance, plus some additional trails that were informally created over the years.
 
As passionate as I am about outdoor recreation, what drew me to this job wasn’t just that I could spend my summer exploring and researching the outdoors. As a Growth and Structure of Cities major, I am interested in how municipalities can create vibrant, livable communities with strategic planning decisions. Being able to approach my work from the perspective of a planning agency was the perfect way to combine my passion for the outdoors with my interests in planning, and I gained invaluable insight into the profession along the way. 
 
Given my interest in planning, the biggest question I had going into this internship was how a planning agency carries out a project from start to finish and creates meaningful change in a community. While my tenure was far too short to witness the entire life of a single project, I got a first-hand look into a variety of planning projects at different stages of completion, from the beginning steps of a street redesign project to the later stages of a river cleanup project. Additionally, having access to the organization’s library exposed me to its historical work, which highlighted that many features of the Berkshires that I had taken for granted growing up were the result of intentional, hard-fought planning projects. The main takeaway? Communities are not self-sustaining– they require the ongoing work of passionate planners to shape and maintain the spaces where we live, work, and gather. 
 
I am extremely grateful for the CCPA’s Liberal Arts in the Workplace Grant for making this internship possible. I also thank BRPC for offering me this exceptional opportunity.