OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE, FOOD, & FORESTRY
DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY BUILDING
OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD, & FORESTRY

MILES provided full architectural services for this addition to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry. The facility houses all of the Laboratory Services Division as well as the Metrology Lab for the Bureau of Standards. The three-story structure, located in the state capitol complex, contains a variety of laboratory types including chemistry, serology, dairy, and BSL3 spaces.

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The Metrology Laboratory is one of a handful of facilities throughout the country which is certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and accredited as a calibration laboratory by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). The design of the Metrology Lab required special consideration in order to mitigate air turbulence and vibration throughout the laboratory which allows the Bureau to provide accurate traceable standards to both legal and private metrology clientele. In addition, environmentally sensitive equipment used to measure calibration weights to an accuracy of less than 0.1 micrograms are utilized to ensure compliance with state and federal laws. 

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The laboratory administration determined that the laboratory needed to be flexible to accommodate anticipated changes in equipment and procedures.  For that reason, modular laboratory casework was selected to allow the benches to be reconfigurable.  In addition, the HVAC system utilized an energy-efficient, yet 100% fully exhausted system to ensure that hazardous contaminants were not re-entrained. In a later modification, an acid-digest fume hood was installed, enabling large quantities of acids to be boiled with the resultant vapor removed via a mist-and-scrubber system.  
 
The laboratory service space is divided into several divisions including Animal Health, Feed, Fertilizer & Lime, Food & Dairy, Pesticide, Quality Assurance, Seed, and Water & Inorganics. Within these laboratories, state researchers conduct testing on division-related samples in order to assure the quality of agricultural products, to ensure consumer protection and regulatory compliance, and to diagnose animal diseases.