I think some better textures might also look better....I find those particular lab textures more lab-officy than lab-lab, if you get what I mean. I think maybe those green panels might look kind of cool, combined with some machinery on the walls, one or two of them removed for maintenance, with the equipment behind exposed, and definitely some darker lighting might do the trick, like maybe removing those fifties ceiling lights (Maybe the spores are sensitive to white light, so the room is lit dimly with that blue light from the little lights in front of the spores, or something). It needs more clutter (the perfect word I was looking for!), like more equipment, computers, trim, cables, machinery, useless gadgets that look like they do something important, decals, signs, valves, gearboxes, (lol), but add more! Detail in single-play is what captivates the player.
I'm gonna go with CP that a control room would be good. You could do some interesting architecture or texture(s) on it and make it stand out a little bit, that rail just doesn't really cut it. Alternatively, make that little platform a monitoring station for that vent that goes right into it and add some pipes, dials, vents, steam, ambient sounds....the possibilities are endless! I'm looking forward to seeing what will come out of this, the improvement over the original pics is excellent, and I want to see what you can do with your mapping skills.
Good luck!
-Rabid