The first sections of the Municipal Building were occupied in mid-1913. The building had not been ready at the beginning of the year, forcing some city departments to renew the leases at their existing quarters. Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, after taking office in 1914, criticized the usage of space in the Municipal Building as "wasteful". Some of the city departments that were scheduled to move into the building had found space elsewhere, and other city departments had been allotted less space in the building than in their previous quarters. Two years later, the New York City Board of Estimate commenced an investigation into office vacancies at the Municipal Building, after the New York Public Service Commission leased floors in other buildings.