Scientists work Friday in the controlled substance lab at the new Allegheny County Morgue in Pittsburgh. The CSI-type lab has the nation's only robotics and computer system that speeds up DNA and blood testing.

PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County unveiled its new $26.8 million morgue and crime laboratory Friday that catapults the county's forensics operations out of one of its oldest buildings into a CSI-type workplace.

The new complex not only provides Pittsburgh pathologists, scientists and ballistics experts with needed space but also puts them under one roof, potentially improving the efficiency of two investigative units that previously worked in separate, subpar conditions.

The morgue previously was housed in a 107-year-old building across the street from the lab, which operated in the basement of the city-county building. The new building is more than twice as large and provides technological improvements expected to become a model for similar operations nationwide.

"We're very proud of this facility," County Executive Dan Onorato told reporters touring the building, which once housed public defenders, park services and other county offices in the city's Strip District of restaurants and specialty grocers.

Biologists are most excited by a robot, designed by Pittsburgh-based Cybergenetics, that reduces the time it takes to prepare a specimen for DNA analysis from one day to five minutes. The time from sampling to profile also will drop — from two weeks to two days — said Tom Meyers, the lab's biology manager.

And while one person can handle about 20 cases at a time, the robot can handle 96, dropping eight plastic pipettes tips from one sample to the next, removing inhibitors and separating specimens.

The programs are paid for with a $500,000 DNA Unit Efficiency Grant, making Pittsburgh's lab one of only five in the country to receive such federal funds. The lab is the first in the state accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

Karl Williams, the county's medical examiner, said any biological testing will take days or weeks, not minutes as it does on the popular "CSI" television show. Still, he said, Pittsburgh's facility is "better than, more interesting and more real" than anything on TV.

The offices are arranged in labyrinthine fashion, each area divided by several doors to ensure proper air temperatures and security.

The complex has a garage to process DNA, blood and fingerprints found in vehicles; a secure area for investigators to drop off evidence any time of the day, instead of only weekdays during business hours; a camera with a robotic arm that snaps pictures of evidence and automatically sends the photos to a computer; and two freezers that each hold up to 50 bodies, replacing the one freezer that could hold about 25.

The building also makes use of natural light and has a water system that recirculates unused water to help lower energy costs.