SAN DIEGO—San Diego was recently named the country's smartest city by the National Geographic Channel. In many ways it is a poster city for the return to city centers nationwide.

If that weren't enough to make the city proud, an exhibit designed to encourage visitors to ponder the urbanism movement, its history and future in downtown San Diego will open this month. Rethink Downtown: Behind San Diego's Skyline, sponsored by Bosa Development, opens to the public on Saturday, September 26. It is available to residents and visitors to San Diego at no charge. Open for a limited run, the 3,000 square-foot Rethink is an exhibition-lecture series that celebrates San Diego and asks visitors to ponder downtown's future, where it's going, and how architecture, design, amenities and quality of life enable San Diego to matter on a national scale from millennials to boomers. The exhibition, one of the largest privately sponsored exhibits of its kind in downtown San Diego, will take place at 700 First Avenue, and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Bosa enlisted an international creative team to curate the exhibit based out of San Diego, London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Rethink Downtown is curated by Canadian Trevor Boddy, a critic, curator, historian of architecture/urbanism and consulting urban designer.