How many skylines do you think Houston has?

Quick question: How many skylines do you think Houston has? One? Two? Maybe as many as seven?

Some would say just the big one -- downtown Houston -- marked by the towering JPMorgan Chase Tower, Heritage Plaza, 1600 Smith Street, and Wells Fargo Plaza looking like a majestic Mayan ruin.

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The safe answer is probably three: Downtown Houston, the Uptown Galleria area, and the Texas Medical Center.

Still some very permissive Houstonians would say that we need to include the Greenway Plaza, the Energy Corridor, the City Centre/Memorial Mall drag along I-10 West, and the Westchase district.

There have even been somewhat jarring declarations that the hazy plethora of refineries along Highway 225 through Pasadena, Deer Park, and La Porte should be lumped in this conversation too. True, they give off a eye-catching metropolitan glow in the dark of night from afar, but let's pump the brakes.

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The Texas Medical Center skyline is quickly growing, marked by the St. Luke's Medical Tower with its two hypodermic needles pointed skyward. The brightly-coiffed Methodist Hospital Outpatient Care Center, opened in the past decade, also attracts the eye. The TMC skyline holds a special place in the hearts -- literally in some cases -- of many locals for its life-changing and life-saving services.

The Uptown Galleria skyline is lorded over by the Williams Tower (nee Transco Tower), towering above the area offering vantages points clear out to Pasadena and the Woodlands on a clear day from its highest peaks.

Native Houstonians love sharing stories of driving into the city with visitors who haven't quite ingested the size of Houston.

"When I was working in real estate I was driving an out-of-town buyer around town when he pointed and said 'So that's downtown?' and I said , 'Oh no my man, that's the Medical Center. Downtown is over there."  The man replied, "This place is huge."

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But how does one define a skyline? Is there a quota of tall buildings that must be met? Ten buildings or more in height?

"Taller buildings grouped together next to smaller buildings does not make a skyline. A skyline has to be the image that represents a "downtown" area, with several true skyscrapers. In Houston, we have one," said Adrienne Hastings, a Houston native who just moved back to Houston from the Big Apple.

Is it based on national recognition? Hastings thinks that the only one that matters is the downtown skyline.

"No one envisioning Houston thinks of any skyline besides the downtown one," Hastings added.

Can most people outside of Houston even pick our downtown skyline out of a lineup? Atlanta has several skylines itself, five according to locals, and Miami has eleven at last count but can anyone pick them out of a lineup?

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We needed an adult in the room so Houston historian Mike Vance, program director of the Heritage Society, weighed in. He puts the number of Houston-area skylines at four -- Downtown, the Texas Medical Center, Uptown Galleria, and CityCentre. He thinks that the refineries east of Houston should also get a nod.

"When I was a little kid, we went back and forth to my grandparents' house in the (Rio Grande) Valley a lot and there was a refinery around Driscoll that we'd pass at night and I used to think was like Manhattan," Vance said.

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The downtown Houston skyline offers picturesque backdrops for everything from engagement to graduation photos and it will likely remain the go-to skyline. The Energy Corridor skyline probably won't be on any mugs, T-shirts, or tattooed on any biceps although it shapes the lives of a great deal of people. Uptown is still too nebulous and disparate to strike any emotion in any hearts besides those who frequently find themselves chest deep in credit card debt.

Maybe in Houston we stretch the concept of what a skyline really is deciding that "big buildings along a freeway", as one Houstonian puts it, make up a proper skyline.

Us Texans like stretching the truth anyway.

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message