Well, you still can't take your prom night date there, but Allegheny County's new $26.8 million morgue and crime lab complex in the Strip District is a major upgrade in every way over the 107-year-old morgue and cramped basement crime lab Downtown.

"It's a quantum level change in every way for autopsies, lab analysis, firearms ballistics, and creature comforts for the people who work here," said Marty Coyne, medical examiner supervisor, who remembers when the popular macabre prom night visits to view bodies and cuddle close were stopped in 1964.

County Executive Dan Onorato unveiled the new 80,000-square-foot Medical Examiner facility in the 1500 block of Penn Avenue yesterday, prior to its official opening today. He led a media tour through the new morgue's five-table, stainless-steel autopsy room and body cold storage lockers, and crime labs equipped with computerized robots that will do DNA testing and a scanning electron microscope that can identify the faintest of gunshot residues.

"This state-of-the-art facility includes a number of new features that will improve the medical examiner's efficiency and effectiveness, including a secure 24-hour evidence drop off [locker] area, on-site crime vehicle processing, firing range and unique DNA lab," Mr. Onorato said.

There is a special air pressure and filtration system to prevent DNA test contamination and several "green" building components to reduce water waste and energy use.

County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams said the new facility will enable the county morgue and crime lab to reduce laboratory analysis and crime case backlogs. The biggest backlog is in ballistics testing.

Toxicity testing now takes from four to six weeks, about the national average, but the wait for results will be significantly reduced when the new lab gets up and running. The laboratory handles evidence from more than 600 drug cases a month.

"It's been more than a century since the county had a new facility for the morgue and this is an exciting moment in a long project," Dr. Williams said. "This lab will ensure that the citizens of Allegheny County get modern and efficient crime scene investigations and scientific analysis of evidence."

One of the biggest changes will be in how crime evidence is stored, cataloged and handled. The old county crime lab evidence room was open only from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Steve Pilarski, the lab's manager for administration, said the new lab will be open to accept and store evidence all day, every day.

"That's very important for municipal police departments," said Whitehall Police Chief Donald Dolfi, "because it will help establish chain of custody in holding the evidence and reduce municipal overtime costs for police officers called to testify about handling of that evidence."

Jami St. Clair, American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors board chair, announced the new lab has been accredited by the organization, making it one of 361 accredited crime labs in the country and the first county crime lab in Pennsylvania to receive the honor. The old county crime lab, in the basement of the City-County Building on Grant Street, Downtown, was not accredited.

Dr. Williams said the expanded autopsy and body storage areas also give the new facility better capability to handle "mass casualty events" and integrate operations with the county's $5.6 million bio-terrorism lab in Lawrenceville that is scheduled to open next month.

The morgue does complete autopsies on about 800 bodies each year, about 250 of those deaths caused by drug overdoses.

Pat Lanigan, one of several representatives of the Allegheny County Funeral Directors Association who toured the facility yesterday, said the bigger, better, morgue should result in more efficiencies in determining the cause of death and greater care of the deceased.

"In the past, sometimes there were delays in doing autopsies because they could only do so much in that cramped space," said Mr. Lanigan, who operates funeral homes in East Pittsburgh and Turtle Creek.

"So this could improve things for families by having the bodies released to funeral homes in a more timely way and allowing for better funeral planning."