Control of structural response due to seismic excitation in a manner of coupling adjacent buildings has been actively developed, and most attention focused on those buildings of similar height. However, with the rapid development of some modern cities, multi-story buildings constructed with an auxiliary low-rise podium structure to provide extra functions to the complex become a growing construction scheme. Being inspired by the positively examined coupling control approach for buildings with similar height, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive analytical study on control effectiveness of using friction dampers to link the two buildings with significant height difference to supplement the recent experimental investigation carried out by the writers. The analytical model of a coupled building system is first developed with passive friction dampers being modeled as Coulomb friction. To highlight potential advantage of coupling the main building and podium structure with control devices that provide a lower degree of coupling, the inherent demerit of rigid-coupled configuration is then evaluated. Extensive parametric studies are finally performed. The concerned parameters influencing the design of optimal friction force and control efficiency include variety of earthquake excitation and differences in floor mass, story number as well as number of dampers installed between the two buildings. In general, the feasibility of interaction control approach applied to the complex structure for vibration reduction due to seismic excitation is supported by positive results.