The church was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, who was the state architect in Iceland during the design and construction of the church. Guðjón designed many of the most important buildings in Iceland during his carrier as state architect. Among the buildings he designed are the University of Iceland’s main building, The National Theatre, the Catholic church Landakort in Reykjavík and the Lutheran church Hallgrímskirkja. Guðjón also designed many buildings in Akureyri other than Akureyri church. He also designed buildings in the immediate vicinity of the church, like the Akureyri elementary school building, the sports hall in Laugargötu and the oldest part of the swimming pool building. Guðjón was also the author of the first town plan for Akureyri.
The Akureyri church building has a rather particular style, with two church towers, and it was originally covered with shell sand and obsidian fragments. Obsidian is a rock formation that originates around lava flows and is therefore a typical Icelandic stone. This combination of shell sand and obsidian was commonly used for many years as an outer cover of Icelandic buildings. When the outer layer of the church building was restored in the nineteen eighties, then the builders used imported black and white marble stones because the shell sand and obsidian had been protected and it was not allowed to be used as a building material any more.