The seismic pounding between adjacent, dynamically incompatible reinforced concrete structures poses a significant collapse risk. This study presents a numerical investigation to evaluate a novel coupling system (NCS) designed to enforce response synchronization and eliminate pounding, comparing its performance against a conventional individual building retrofit (IBR) strategy. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models were developed for two adjacent reinforced concrete buildings, representing a seismically deficient building inventory. The performance of the bare, IBR, and NCS configurations was assessed through a suite of nonlinear response history analyses and subsequent probabilistic fragility analyses. The results demonstrate the enhanced performance of the enforced synchronization approach. While the IBR strategy reduced the total number of impacts from 97 to 31 across all analyses, the NCS completely eliminated pounding by transforming the two structures into a single, coupled dynamic system. This elimination of impact-induced shock loading resulted in a 50 % reduction in peak roof acceleration relative to the bare case. Furthermore, the NCS channeled 65 % of the total input energy into its designated ductile links, compared to only 45 % for the IBR system. Probabilistic analysis confirms this performance enhancement; the median collapse capacity of the more vulnerable structure was increased from a peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.32 g to 1.32 g, a four-fold improvement that substantially outperforms the IBR. The findings confirm that a design philosophy based on enforced coupling is a more effective mechanism for mitigating seismic pounding than conventional, independent-building strengthening.