In continuous operation for 134 years, Haines Lundberg Waehler (HLW) is one of the oldest architecture and engineering firms in the United States. The firm was founded in 1885 by Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz, the son of another prominent architect, Leopold Eidlitz and in the intervening years was renamed multiple times to reflect the partners in the firm: Eidlitz & McKenzie (1905); McKenzie, Voorhees, and Gmelin (1910); Voorhees, Gmelin, and Walker (1926); Voorhees Walker Foley & Smith (1938); Voorhees Walker Smith & Smith (1955); Voorhees Walker Smith Smith & Haines (1958); Smith Smith Lundberg & Waehler (1964); Smith Haines Lundberg & Waehler (1966); and Haines Lundberg Waehler (1968). In 1976 the firm embraced Haines Lundberg Waehler and the initials HLW as its permanent name.

Prominent commissions include the Metropolitan Telephone Building, designed for the company newly founded by Alexander Graham Bell; the New York Times Building, which established Times Square as a landmark and also integrated the tallest structure in the city with the first integrated subway station; and Barclay-Vesey Building, the central headquarters of the New York Telephone Company and the world's largest telephone facility.