relate that station as a work of design either to the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood or to the tradition of the New York subway." In 1996, Ralph Fasanella's 1950 painting "Subway Riders" was installed outside fare control in the full-time mezzanine. It was the first oil painting installed in a subway station in New York City. Fasanella had donated it to the American Folk Art Museum on the condition that it stay permanently displayed in the subway under the MTA Arts & Design program, saying, "I'd rather have people see this painting in the subway than any museum." In 2014, "Subway Riders" was temporarily removed and placed in a traveling exhibition called "Self Taught Genius: Treasures From the American Folk Art Museum". Proposed improvements As part of the rezoning of East Midtown, which was approved in 2017, developers were permitted to construct buildings at the maximum permitted floor area ratio if they transferred landmark development rights, rebuilt overbuilt floor area, or made pre-identified improvements to subway stations in the area. The six stations chosen for improvements (Grand Central–42nd Street, Lexington Avenue/51st Street, 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue, 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center, Lexington Avenue/59th Street, and Fifth Avenue/53rd Street) were prioritized due to high ridership. Improvement projects include making stations compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, improving circulation and wayfinding, and reducing congestion by constructing new entrances, or by installing escalators and wider staircases. A list of three levels of improvements were created by the MTA and the New York City Department of City Planning. Type 1 improvements would give a developer of additional floor area, Type 2 improvements would give them an additional , and Type 3 improvements would give them an additional . Initially, in 2012, two improvements were considered for the Fifth Avenue station. These would entail adding or widening stairs between the upper and lower level platform at the east end of the station, and adding or widening the escalators between the upper level platform and the Madison Avenue mezzanine. The main reasoning for the first of the two improvements was because that staircase is over capacity, clearing in 75 seconds during the morning rush hour, greater than the 45 second guideline. The reasoning of the second was because the escalators are at capacity, and would become over capacity if the capacity of the staircase between the two levels was increased. As approved, the East