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Most cities in Romania, faced in the post-communist period with changes in the dynamics and functional structure of the city. The transformations after 1990, in terms of territorial planning, reconversion and economic policies, have led to important decisions regarding the industrial platforms. Industrial reconversion is a natural stage in urban evolution in most Eastern European countries with an unstable or very dynamic economy. The post-communist period is marked by the development of services and the regression of industrial activities, thus, the cities passing through a long process of deindustrialization and restructuring. Many of these industrial areas have been demolished and gradually converted in commercial areas. Thus, the commercial areas have experienced a real „boom” in the large cities of Moldova, adapting to the consumption need, specific to the capitalist city. The present study proposes an analysis of these transformations in the major cities of Moldova, using multi-temporal cartographic materials, such as topographic maps and orthophotoplans, taking into account the particularities of urban systems and how the specificity of each area influences these conversions. The transformation of industrial sites into commercial areas was carried out in an unplanned way, being identified different ways of urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]